Rutgers scholar Katherine Ognyanova is available to comment on the latest Rutgers-Harvard-Northeastern-Northwestern survey data from The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States.
The researchers surveyed 21,196 people across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia from Aug. 7 – 26. The researchers polled participants about President Trump’s and the 50 governors’ responses to COVID-19. The survey also charts how public opinion has changed since late April.
To view the full report and findings, click here. Among the findings:
- The average governor saw their approval slip from 51% in July to 48% in August (versus 63% in late April).
- President Trump rebounded slightly from his low point of approval of 34% in July to 35% in August.
- States with governors who have notably low approval ratings (below 40%) include Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Oregon, Oklahoma, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas.
- Governors with precipitous drops in the last month include those in California (Gavin Newsom) from 58% approval to 47%, Virginia (Ralph Northam) from 59% to 46% and Florida (Ron DeSantis) from 40% to 29%.
- Trump’s approval in Florida also dropped sharply from 39% to 29%.
- Average approval for a Democratic governor among Democrats dropped from 77% to 69% since April; and 57% to 41% among Republicans.
Katherine Ognyanova, an assistant professor at Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information, does research in network science, computational social science, social technology, media, civic and political communication.
For interviews, contact Megan Schumann, megan.schumann@rutgers.edu, 848-445-1907
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