GOP Governors Not Good At Handling COVID, Public Says

Ken AshfordEbola/Zika/COVID-19 Viruses, PollsLeave a Comment

Oh look. It seems that people aren’t impressed with their GOP Governors following the Trump model of lying, blowing smoke, blaming and otherwise acting like assholes during a major public health crisis:

While governors’ ratings for communicating about the virus and caring about their communities are down slightly, this is not uniform across the country but varies by the party of the sitting governor.

For this analysis, residents were sorted into two groups based on the political party of the governor: this includes residents in the 26 states currently led by Republican governors and residents in the 24 states led by Democratic governors.

There have been clear declines in residents’ ratings of their governor in Republican-led states as a whole. This includes an 11-point decrease, from 54% in early June to 43% most recently, in those agreeing their governor is communicating a clear plan of action for addressing the pandemic. There has also been an eight-point decline, from 61% to 53%, in those agreeing their governor cares about the safety and health of the community.

RepGovs

Meanwhile, there has been no meaningful change in the governor ratings of residents in Democratic-led states as a whole.

DemGovs

Further analysis of the Gallup data shows that Republican governors lost the most support over the past month from political independents, with lesser declines seen among Republican residents. Democrats’ already low ratings of their Republican governors’ response to the situation were fairly flat by comparison.

The majority of independents in Republican-led states rated their governors positively at the start of June on all three dimensions; however, these evaluations slid 19 points to 39% for communicating a clear plan, fell 20 points to 37% for keeping residents informed and slipped 13 points to 47% for caring about the safety and health of the community.Ratings of Republican Governors’ Handling of COVID-19By party ID of residents in Republican-led states

Meanwhile, in states led by Democratic governors, independents’ ratings of their governors’ handling of the situation increased slightly in June, by six to eight points across the dimensions analyzed. Republicans living in these states also grew slightly more positive about their Democratic governors’ leadership over the course of June, while Democratic residents’ already high ratings didn’t change much at all.Ratings of Democratic Governors’ Handling of COVID-19By party ID of residents in Democrat-led states

Two patterns emerge from these changes:

  • While Republicans and Democrats living in states led by their own party were equally satisfied with their governor at the start of June, a month later, Democrats were significantly more positive about Democratic governor’s leadership on the coronavirus situation than Republicans were with Republican governors.
  • Additionally, whereas at the start of June, political independents in Republican states initially gave their governor higher ratings than those in Democratic states, the reverse was true four weeks later.

Republican governors, as a whole, are rated less well today by residents of Republican-led states than they were at the start of June. This coincides with a sharp increase in COVID-19 infections across the country, but particularly in red states, including most of the nation’s Sun Belt…

The political implications of these trends aren’t clear. There are only 11 gubernatorial elections this year, including seven involving Republican sitting governors, so their electoral exposure this year is low. However, Republican governors’ reduced performance ratings could affect their ability to influence citizens to follow state guidelines or affect their clout with other state policymakers. And given the prominence of the COVID-19 crises, it could permanently shape how governors — many of them in their first term — are perceived by their constituents, ultimately influencing what happens at the ballot box in 2022 or beyond.

I’m going to guess that Independents don’t watch Fox News religiously so that may account for the fact that they can see just how dishonest and lethal these GOP Governors have been with their responses.

The analysis looked at correlations with Trump and it appears that the Governors are losing steam on their own. The mistrust of Trump’s response remains the same.

And one GOP governor who thought it would be great for a Trump rally in his state three weeks ago just GOT the coronavirus.