Coronavirus Has Boosted Unpopular Governors—And Hurt Some Popular Ones

TOPLINE

The coronavirus pandemic has had a seismic effect on Americans’ views of their governors, with most previously unpopular ones who instituted strict lockdown measures shooting way up in the polls while some broadly popular ones who failed to take early action slipping into the negative ratings.

KEY FACTS

Key Background

The pandemic has, broadly speaking, improved how Americans view their governors. A FiveThirtyEight analysis found that most governors who were polled during the pandemic saw a bump. Those who instituted some of the strictest measures like Cuomo, California’s Gavin Newsom, Ohio’s Mike DeWine and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer have enjoyed the largest increases. Other governors who took strong measures like Maryland’s Larry Hogan, Massachusetts’ Charlie Baker saw more modest bumps, but mostly because they were already wildly popular before the pandemic.

One other governor who has seen a boost is Iowa’s Kim Reynolds, who went from 44% approval in December to 54% in a Harvard poll in May. Reynolds, a Republican, issued some restrictions but resisted calls to institute a full stay-at-home order–although some experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci have said her cumulative orders are equivalent to other states’ stay-at-home orders. Early on, Iowa avoided the brunt of the pandemic, but there are signs that is changing fast.

Surprising Fact

In December, some of the most popular Governors in the country were actually Republicans in heavily Democratic states. Hogan, Baker and Vermont Governor Phil Scott were the second, third and fourth most popular governors in Morning Consult’s poll. All ten of the most popular governors in that poll were Republicans.

Tangent

Like Kemp and DeSantis, President Trump has received a lot of flack from critics for his coronavirus response. He resisted pressure to issue a national stay-at-home order, and has voiced support for anti-lockdown protestors. Polls early on in the pandemic showed Trump’s approval rating nearing a positive margin for the first time since his inauguration, but it faced a steep drop in April and Trump has since remained underwater.