Approval Of DeSantis' Handling Of Coronavirus Outbreak Plummets

FLORIDA — Most Floridians gave a thumbs-down to Gov. Ron DeSantis for his handling of the coronavirus in late April and the governor's approval rating continued to plunge throughout the summer. That's according to a recent poll conducted jointly by Northeastern University, Harvard University, Rutgers University, and Northwestern University.

Maryland and four other states — Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Vermont — with
Republican governors that have taken a more aggressive stance in managing the
pandemic with a very different partisan pattern in approval. In those five states, approval
for the Republican governor among Democrats and Republicans has consistently been
high averaged across the five states, a bit higher among Democrats (72 percent)
than Republicans (71 percent), the poll showed.

In the remaining 21 states with Republican governors, approval is especially polarized, at 64 percent among Republicans (dropping 13 points since April), and 25 points among Democrats (dropping 22 points).

The four universities have been tracking approval ratings for governors in all 50 states since late April, about a month after the outbreak began. Poll numbers for De Santis started at only 46 percent approval, ticked up slightly in late May, and have dropped nearly 20 points in the following months.

Here are the percentage of people who have approved or strongly approved of DeSantis' performance:

• Late April: 46 percent.

• Early May: 46 percent.

• Late May: 50 percent.

• Late June: 43 percent.

• Late July: 40 percent.

• Late August: 29 percent.

That puts DeSantis well below the average 48 percent percent approval rating a majority of governors received.

Governors who raced to reopen their economies, or never truly shut them down in the first place, had hot spots flourish in their states this summer, places where the virus is spreading virtually unchecked. And their pollo numbers reflect the unhappiness voters have over those decisions.

Just this week Miami-Dade and Broward County moved to phase 2 of their reopeningnext week at DeSantis' approval. Miami-Dade and Broward are the last of Florida's 67 counties to move into phase 2. Along with nearby Palm Beach County, those three South Florida counties have been considered the epicenter of Florida's coronavirus outbreak.

In mid-July DeSantis blamed the Florida's soaring coronavirus case numbers on increased testing and said New York and New Jersey probably would have reported four to five times as many daily cases had they done the same amount of tests during their peek periods of the outbreak.

"I think, the fact that we're testing so much has led to case numbers that have been put out there, and I think kind of unfairly maligning the state," DeSantis told reporters at a news conference in Orange County saying Florida was averaging about 100,000 tests per day.

In March the governor earned the wrath of some in the Northeast when he issued an order requiring all incoming air passengers from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to self-quarantine for 14 days.

A common factor among the most popular governors is they issued mandates ordering residents to wear masks in public, The Hill said. Twelve of the 15 most popular governors have issued mask mandates and just two of the 16 least popular governors — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) — issued mandates.

President Trump, who started from a lower point, has lost ground from his high point of approval of 42 percent in late April and early May, the poll said. Trump's approval rating in Florida since the start of the outbreak:

• Late April: 42 percent.
• Early May: 42 percent.
• Late May: 38 percent.
• Late June: 40 percent.
• Late July: 39 percent
• Late August: 29 percent.

See the entire poll results here.