(CNN) - These are the kind of numbers any politician would like.
Fifty-three percent of Virginia voters approve of the job Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell is doing in office, with just 26% giving him a thumbs down, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.
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The survey comes as McDonnell closes in on his final year as Virginia governor and may start considering a possible bid for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination.
The poll, released Thursday, indicates that McDonnell scores well among people who normally don't give Republican politicians rave reviews. He gets a 48%-26% approval rating among women, a 41%-32% approval among black voters, and a 48%-24% thumbs up from voters age 18-34. Democrats, as expected, comprise the only group that disapproves of McDonnell–but only by a narrow 43%-34% margin.
"As Gov. Bob McDonnell enters his final year in office, he remains one of the nation's more popular chief state executives," says Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
"He is the only Republican office-holder in the seven states surveyed by Quinnipiac University who get positive ratings from women, almost 2-1 in this case, and a plus score from black voters. A 2-1 approval rating among young voters doesn't hurt. Are national GOP leaders paying attention here?" adds Brown.
In Virginia, governors cannot run for consecutive terms, thus McDonnell is prevented from making a bid for re-election next year. This year he was a leading surrogate for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and was considered to be in the mix for a while as a possible running mate for Romney. McDonnell is among a number of Republicans who may have designs on making a bid for the White House in 2016.
Meanwhile a new Quinnipiac poll in Pennsylvania, also released Thursday, indicates that 40% of Keystone State voters approve of the job Republican Gov. Tom Corbett is doing in office, with 38% saying they disapprove.
"With positive marks for his handling of Hurricane Sandy, Gov. Tom Corbett moves from a negative job approval to a break-even," says Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Corbett is up for re-election in 2014.
The Quinnipiac University poll in Pennsylvania was conducted Nov. 9-13, with 1,489 registered voters questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
The Quinnipiac University poll in Virginia was conducted Nov. 8-12, with 1,469 registered voters questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @PsteinhauserCNN
