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Survey: Majority Of Mountain West Unhappy With Trump's Handling Of Pandemic

White House

This story was powered by America Amplified, a public radio initiative.

Nearly two-thirds of residents in the Mountain West believe Trump isn't doing a good job handling the pandemic, according to a survey from researchers at Harvard, Rutgers, Northeastern and Northwestern universities released Tuesday.

 Click 'play' to hear the audio version of this story.

Trump's approval ratings in regards to the pandemic have dropped an average of ten points since last April both across the nation and in the region. 

Some of the steepest declines were in New Mexico, Idaho and Wyoming – though the sample size in Wyoming was low, giving it a larger margin of error.

LaVerna Munro of Eureka, Mont., is among the majority who aren't happy with the president's response. 

"Other countries have done a good job," she said. "I don't think the U.S. has done a good job."

But Matthew Barrett of Eureka, Mont., supports Trump and says the left has politicized the president's response. 

"There seemed to be cooperation in the beginning," he says. "But then people began to see some political advantage to taking shots at him and it just devolved from there."

The survey found that the region's governors are also facing more disapproval as the pandemic wears on, though only one governor, Doug Ducey of Arizona, has an approval rating in their state lower than that of the president.

The researchers surveyed 22,501 individuals across all 50 states and the District of Columbia between June 12 and 28th. 

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Copyright 2020 Boise State Public Radio News

Nate Hegyi
Nate Hegyi is a reporter with the Mountain West News Bureau based at Yellowstone Public Radio. He earned an M.A. in Environmental Science and Natural Resource Journalism in 2016 and interned at NPR’s Morning Edition in 2014. In a prior life, he toured around the country in a band, lived in Texas for a spell, and once tried unsuccessfully to fly fish. You can reach Nate at nate@ypradio.org.
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