A GOP poll found that DeSantis led former Vice President Mike Pence, 22-15, in a theoretical presidential matchup without former President Donald Trump on the ballot.
And as the Delta variant began receding and the number of new infections decreased, DeSantis saw his poll numbers nationally remain high among Republicans. “Any support for a vaccine mandate at this point would be damaging for any governor thinking of running for president as a Republican.”ĭeSantis has built a national reputation for fighting any type of Covid restrictions, including school mask mandates and efforts to force businesses to implement vaccine mandates on staff for customers.Īs the Delta variant surged and DeSantis battled schools over mask mandates, his approval rating dropped below 50 percent, according to an August Quinnipiac University poll.īut DeSantis dug in.
Vaccine requirements “remain very unpopular with the Republican base,” GOP strategist Ryan Williams said. A Morning Consult/POLITICO poll from August found only about 35 percent of Republicans were in favor of mandatory coronavirus vaccines. A recent CBS News/YouGov poll found that 64 percent of Republicans would prefer to vote for a candidate who encourages vaccines but that an even greater number - 75 percent - want a candidate who opposes mandates.
“That audience is front and center in all of these decisions,” Republican consultant Brendan Steinhauser said.Īnd right now that base is anti-mandate. Both of those factors are sending GOP governors scrambling to shore up support among the party’s base. Some, like DeSantis in Florida and South Dakota Gov. Several Republican governors, including Abbott in Texas, are facing primary challenges from their right. “Leadership is about doing the right thing, which is not always the most popular thing, especially in the short term,” DeSantis aide Christina Pushaw said. Safarpour warned, based on the research, that governors eschewing vaccine mandates “should really assess what’s in their political best interests when it comes to the pandemic.”īut aides to DeSantis and Abbott defended their actions as doing what’s right by their constituents and combating the confusion stemming from Biden’s yet-to-be-outlined vaccine requirements for federal workers and businesses with more than 100 employees. Those ratings should be low enough to make any politician nervous. And it takes yet another hit - dropping to just 36 percent - in states where governors have barred vaccine mandates. That coronavirus approval rating drops to 42 percent for governors in states with no vaccine requirements. In states with vaccine mandates, 52 percent of people approve or strongly approve of their governors’ handling of the pandemic, according to the latest survey from the Covid States Project, which has been tracking gubernatorial approval ratings for the past year and a half. While many of these governors remain popular, some have seen dips in their overall approval ratings in recent months as their states faced the latest wave of coronavirus. Ron DeSantis followed up by vowing to sue the Biden administration.īut new research shows governors in states without vaccine mandates - or where they’ve outright prohibited such a requirement - have “significantly lower” approval ratings for their handling of Covid-19. Greg Abbott flat-out banned vaccine requirements, and Florida Gov. But they’re not worried.įrom Florida to Texas to South Dakota, GOP governors have been on the front lines of the war against vaccine mandates, barring immunization requirements in their states and threatening to fight President Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate in court. Republican governors crusading against vaccine mandates are facing significantly lower approval ratings on their handling of the coronavirus pandemic than their counterparts.