Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has staked his political aspirations – let alone the health of Floridians – on defying COVID-19 advice from public health experts. But a new poll reveals that his constituents think he’s hurting the effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in his state. His anti-mask stance is particularly unpopular.
“As Florida deals with a surge in COVID-19 cases and a battle intensifies over an executive order issued by Governor Ron DeSantis to ban mask mandates in schools, a majority of people in Florida say 60 – 36 percent that they support requiring students, teachers, and staff to wear masks in schools,” reads an analysis of the Quinnipiac poll.
Mandatory mask wearing in school is extremely popular among the state’s Democrats – 98% support it. Republicans, on the other hand, oppose it 72 – 24%.
But even a majority of Republicans (52%) think withholding school leaders’ salaries if they require masks for students is a bad idea. Overall, 69% of Floridians oppose that type of penalty, which DeSantis has threatened to pursue.
“As COVID-19 makes a frightening resurgence, it’s Tallahassee vs. the teaching institutions. Thumbs down from Floridians on DeSantis’ ban on mask requirements in public schools. Thumbs down on DeSantis’ call to freeze pay of administrators who mandate mask wearing. And he gets scant support from fellow Republicans on penalizing the school leaders who defy him,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy.
Perhaps most damning for DeSantis, a majority of Floridians (61%) believe that the recent rise in COVID-19 cases in the state was preventable and a plurality of Florida residents believe DeSantis is hurting efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19, 46% to 41%.
Writing in The Washington Post, columnist Greg Sargent urges Democrats at large and the White House in particular to exploit dissatisfaction with DeSantis’ handling of COVID-19:
In addition to the obvious public interest rationale for doing this, there’s also a political one. Sun Belt states such as Florida and Texas are emerging as not just our leading front in the mask and covid wars, but also as places where Democrats are poised to exploit changing demographics to make future political gains.