Republican Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin has angered many people in the past year.

Bevin has fought a much-publicized battle with teachers over pensions.

He blocks people on social media who criticize him.

And Bevin often clashes with the media, most recently in his video lambasting the Louisville Courier-Journal launching a one-year partnership with nonprofit ProPublica to investigate Kentucky state government.

Like President Trump, Bevin was an outsider businessman who rode voter dissatisfaction with establishment politicians into office. Once there, he hasn't softened his often confrontational approach, especially on social media.

Now a poll released Tuesday showed Bevin growing more unpopular with Kentuckians and trailing his Democratic challengers.

Independent polling firm Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy found 38 percent of Kentuckians approved of their governor's performance while 53 percent disapproved. Mason-Dixon, based in Jacksonville and Washington, D.C., interviewed 625 registered Kentucky voters Dec. 12-Dec. 15. The poll has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Bevin fared only a little better in the conservative bastion of Northern Kentucky, where 40 percent of people surveyed approved and 51 percent disapproved.

A year ago, more Kentuckians approved of Bevin, 45 percent, compared to 41 percent who disapprove, according to Mason-Dixon.

This is not good news for Bevin as he faces re-election in 2019.

The two Democratic candidates running for governor next year, Attorney General Andy Beshear and Kentucky House Minority Leader Rocky Adkins both led Bevin in Mason-Dixon's polling. Beshear led by 8 percentage points, 48 percent to 40 percent while Adkins led by only 1 percentage point, 42 percent to 41 percent.

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, a prominent Democrat who is mulling a gubernatorial run but hasn't announced, trailed Bevin by 1 percentage point, 46 percent to 47 percent.

The poll pointed out Kentucky Republicans often trail in the early stages of elections, including Bevin in 2015 when he first won election for governor, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"Given this recent history, it is far from over for Bevin," the pollsters wrote in the study. "However, Beshear is a formidable opponent who won four years ago in a GOP-friendly state election."