After Senator Susan Collins claimed President Trump “did a lot that was right in the beginning” as the coronavirus was spreading unchecked through the U.S., new polling shows just 44 percent of Maine voters approve of the federal government’s response to the pandemic and less than a third of Mainers trust the Trump administration’s ability to manage the coronavirus situation.

 

Already the nation’s most unpopular senator, Collins’ continued refusal to hold Trump accountable has caused her popularity among Mainers to plunge even more. The same poll shows “a further drop in approval” for Senator Collins, with an abysmal 37 percent approval rating, compared to 52 percent who disapprove.

 

As more reporting reveals the extent of Trump’s broken promises since declaring a state of emergency a month ago -- including large-scale testing failures that experts say are hampering our national response and ability to re-open the country -- Senator Collins continues to ignore the facts and let Trump off the hook for his botched response from day one.

 

“Maine voters clearly don’t agree with Senator Collins that President Trump ‘did a lot that was right in the beginning,’” said Maine Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Marra. “Mainers are tired of Senator Collins continuing to make excuses for Trump’s failures and are ready to elect a new senator who will be an independent voice for our state.”

 

Bangor Daily News: Poll: Mainers trust state government more than feds on coronavirus response

By Jessica Piper

April 13, 2020

 

Key Points:

 

  • Gov. Janet Mills saw a significant approval bump from last fall in a poll released Monday that showed Mainers are more likely to trust the state government to respond to the coronavirus outbreak than the federal government.

  • The majority of Mainers surveyed — 53 percent — ranked coronavirus as the most important political issue in the state, followed distantly by health care, the economy and unemployment. Fifty-seven percent said they expected the economy to be worse in a year. Last fall, only 32 percent said they expected the economy to get worse.

  • Respondents overwhelmingly preferred Maine’s response to the coronavirus to that of the federal government with 74 percent of those surveyed saying they approved of the state’s response to the virus so far, compared to 44 percent for the federal government.

  • The poll showed a further drop in approval for Republican Sen. Susan Collins since last fall, from 42 percent to 37 percent, while the share of voters who disapproved of her performance climbed to 52 percent, though her approval rating with Republican voters continued to rise.

 

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