Reuters/Ipsos Core Political: Coronavirus Tracker (05/06/2020)

Washington, DC, May 6, 2020 –  This edition of the Reuters/Ipsos Core Political finds that partisanship is determining how Americans respond to the coronavirus/COVID-19. President Trump’s overall approval rating and approval on handling of coronavirus/COVID-19 is flat. When considering the general election in November, Americans are split between former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and President Trump.

About 2 in 5 Americans approve of President Trump’s job performance (42%), unchanged for the last few weeks.

• Trump’s overall approval rating is strongly driven by political party affiliation: 85% of Republican registered voters approve, while just 11% of Democratic registered voters do.
• Looking at specific issues, about half of Americans approve of his handling of the economy (51%) and jobs (52%), while 43% approve of his handling of coronavirus/COVID-19.

Americans are split between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump in the race for the presidency in 2020.

• Among all Americans, 39% would choose Biden if the election were held today and 38% would choose Trump. Among registered voters, the split is similar (43% for Biden, 41% for Trump).
• Not surprisingly, the electorate is split along partisan lines, with 81% of Democratic registered voters supporting Biden, and 83% of Republican registered voters supporting Trump.

Partisanship is showing up in the behavioral responses to coronavirus/COVID-19.

• Republican registered voters are more likely to say they haven’t altered their routine (11%) compared to Democratic registered voters (4%) and to the general public (8%).
• While more than half of Americans report using a mask in public (54%), Democratic registered voters are more likely to say they are wearing masks in public by choice (68%) than Republican registered voters (48%).

About the Study

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between May 4-5, 2020 on behalf of Thomson Reuters. For this survey, a sample of 1,215 Americans age 18+ from the continental U.S., Alaska, and Hawaii were interviewed online in English. The sample includes 1,015 registered voters, 496 Democratic registered voters, 384 Republican registered voters and 105 independent registered voters. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Americans been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error. The poll also has a credibility interval of ± 3.5 percentage points for all registered voters,  ± 5.0 percentage points for Democratic registered voters, ± 5.7 percentage points for Republican registered voters, and ± 10.9 percentage points for independent registered voters.   

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Chris Jackson
Vice President, US
Public Affairs
+1 202 420-2025
[email protected]

Kate Silverstein
Media Relations, US
Public Affairs
+1 718 755-8829
[email protected]

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