Abbott’s popularity dips over reopening
Gov. Greg Abbott ranks 11 out of 12 in approval ratings for large-state governors based on their COVID-19 response with 57 percent approval, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll.
The only governor with a worse rating in the survey of more than 8,000 adults was Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who has taken heat recently from President Donald Trump for reopening the state’s economy too quickly. The average approval rating for governors was 71 percent.
About 59 percent of Texans who responded said they thought Abbott, a Republican, was lifting restrictions too quickly and just 8 percent said he was not lifting them quick enough. The majority of Texans, or 75 percent, said they agreed that “the U.S. should keep trying to slow spread of the coronavirus, even if that means keeping many businesses closed.”
The rest said the economy should return to normal even if it means more people get sick.
In any case, a 57 percent approval rating means a majority of Texans agree with Abbott’s performance during the pandemic. It’s in line with a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll from late April that showed Abbott at 56 percent of
Texas voters — the highest he has received seen since at least June 2015. He was elected that January.
The survey was conducted between April 27 and May 4; findings have an overall margin of error of plus or minus 1 percent, with a margin of error of 3.5 to 7.5 percentage points for findings by state due to smaller sample sizes. Results from Georgia had the highest margin of error.
The differences in ratings of governors appeared to correlate less with political partisanship but rather with how measured the governor’s approach was to returning their states to normalcy. For example, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, who was quick to shut down activity and has since taken a careful approach to reopening, had the highest approval rating at 86 percent.
Partisanship still had some role — numbers in Texas and Florida were skewed lower as a result of Democrats’ disapproval of their Republican governors. At least 8-in-10 Republicans in each of those states said they approved of their governor’s coronavirus response compared to fewer than 4-in-10 Democrats.
Most governors were viewed more favorably than President Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis earned him 43 percent approval. Those ratings did tend to align with political party, with most Republicans and Republican-leaning independents approving of his efforts and most Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents disapproving.