Poll: State and Local Governments Get Way Better Marks than Feds for Handling Virus
Kindergarden teacher Cholakocee Werito, delivers a bag with school supplies and an iPad for her student Monday, Aug. 24, 2020, at Eugene Field Elementary School, in Oklahoma City. AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
The survey shows Americans’ approval of the state and local pandemic response fell this month, but it’s still nowhere near the dismal reviews the Trump administration or Congress gets.
Americans are much more satisfied with how state and local governments are handling the coronavirus compared to Congress and President Trump, according to a new survey. But even at the state and local level approval rates are under 50% and slipping.
The poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted between Aug. 17 and 19, shows nearly two-thirds of respondents either somewhat or strongly disapproved of how congressional leaders have handled the virus response. Only 13% of those polled said they strongly or somewhat approve of congressional leaders’ handling of the outbreak.
Just 23% of respondents said they approved to some degree of how the federal government has been dealing with the virus, while 57% disapproved.
In contrast, 48% of respondents said they strongly or somewhat approved of how their city or local government has responded to the virus. But that’s down from 52% in July. For state governments, that approval figure was 44% in August, down from 48% in July.
Around two-thirds of Americans say that the government is not doing enough to help public schools, individual citizens and small businesses. The figures here for individuals and small businesses both climbed to 66% in August from 53% and 58% respectively in July. Forty-four percent of respondents said the government is doing too much to help large corporations.
The findings come as Democrats and Republicans in Congress in recent weeks have failed to reach an agreement on another coronavirus relief package, and as an emergency $600 a week federal unemployment insurance benefit, supplementing state benefits, expired at the end of July. Trump took executive action this month to provide an added $300 a week federal benefit.
Overall, 68% of Americans disapprove of how Trump has handled the virus outbreak and 31% approve, according to the poll results. But support for the president is sharply fractured along party lines. Two-thirds of Republicans approve of how he’s responded to the virus, while 31% disapprove. With Democrats, just 7% approve the president’s response and 93% disapprove.
The nationwide poll was conducted using both phone and online interviews with 1,075 adults. The margin of error is +/- 4.1 percentage points. The full results can be found here.
Bill Lucia is a senior reporter for Route Fifty and is based in Olympia, Washington.
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