Coronavirus: Governors’ approval rating drops as Covid-19 continues to sweep US

Officials ‘who are doing really well are the ones that have acted most proactively,’ says co-author of study

The approval rating of governors’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic has fallen all across the US since April, as states are still struggling to tackle the outbreak.

A survey conducted by researchers at universities, including Harvard, Northeastern, Northwestern and Rutgers, found that governors in 44 of the country’s 50 states have lower approval ratings from their citizens on their handling of the pandemic then they did in April.

A majority of states went into lockdown in April and implemented social distancing measures in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus, as coronavirus cases rose across the US.

The survey from the Covid-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States, found that in more than two-thirds of states the approval rating of the governor has dropped more than 10 percentage points since April, according to The Hill.

Despite a period where daily case totals fell, the amount of positive coronavirus tests in the country has risen dramatically over the last six weeks, following the easing of lockdown measures in a majority of states.

According to Johns Hopkins University some 4.4 million people have now tested positive for coronavirus in the US and the death toll has reached 150,765.

In the poll, that was conducted over two weeks in early July and included responses from 19,052 adults, only five states showed an improvement in the governor’s approval rating.

Republican Maryland governor Larry Hogan had the highest approval rating in the poll, with 76 per cent of his constituents saying they agreed with his handling of the pandemic.

He was followed by Vermont’s Republican governor Phil Scott on 75 per cent and Democrats Gino Raimondo of Rhode Island and Andrew Cuomo of New York on 71 per cent.

New York was the epicentre of the pandemic in the US earlier in the year and recorded its highest daily death total of 799 people on 9 April.

However, Mr Cuomo, who implemented various social distancing measures and mandated masks in April, saw the state’s daily death total drop to zero on Wednesday.

Of the six governors with the highest approval ratings in the survey, three of them were Democrats and three were Republicans.

However, Republicans dominated the list of the governors with the lowest approval ratings, with Iowa’s Kim Reynolds faring the worst with only 28 per cent of her state’s residents agreeing with her handling of the virus.

Ms Reynolds, who met with the president at the Oval Office in May, has so far resisted mandating face masks, despite 15 health professional groups in the state urging her to sign an executive order to make them compulsory, according to the Des Moines Register.

In total, 12 of the 15 most popular governors have made wearing face masks mandatory in their states, while only two of the 16 officials with the lowest ratings have done the same.

Just above Ms Reynold’s in the survey was Arizona governor Doug Ducey on 30 per cent and Greg Abbott of Texas on 38 per cent, as both officials have seen their states record a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases over the last month.

Both states have recorded their highest daily coronavirus case totals multiple times over the last month and their governors have halted the reopening of businesses in order to get the virus under control.

Overall, 14 of the 15 worst performing governors in the survey were Republicans, with Hawaii’s David Ige the only Democrat in that category on 37 per cent, which represents a two per cent rise from April when he had the worst approval rating in the US.

Co-author of the study Matthew Baum, the Marvin Kalb professor of global communications at Harvard’s Kennedy School, said that governors who were proactive in taking measures fared the best in the results.

“In general, governors that have sought to reopen have been out in front of their citizens. They’ve moved faster than the public was comfortable moving,” He said.

“The governors who are doing really well are the ones that have acted most proactively,” Mr Baum added.

However, despite the fall in a majority of governor’s ratings in response to their handling of the pandemic, only five governors had a worse result in the poll than president Donald Trump.

The president has seen a decline in support in numerous polls over the last few months, after his responses to the coronavirus pandemic and Black Lives Matter protests were criticised.

Only residents in Arizona, Iowa, Missouri and Georgia rated their governor’s response to the pandemic as better than the president, and citizens in Tennessee rated Mr Trump the same as governor Bill Lee on 34 per cent.