Gov. Tate Reeves, after almost one full year as the state’s chief executive, currently has a 34% approval rating and a 49% disapproval rating, according to a poll released Tuesday.
As the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have worsened in Mississippi, Reeves’ popularity has tumbled, according to the Millsaps College/Chism Strategies poll. In June, the same pollster found that 50% of Mississippi voters approved of the job performance of Reeves, while 28% disapproved.
The poor marks for Reeves are almost certainly affected by his perceived handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the poll released Tuesday, 37% of voters believe his management of the pandemic has been excellent/good, 26% say it has just been fair, and 35% say it has been poor/totally unacceptable.
Reeves, the sole elected official who can issue statewide safety orders like mask mandates and crowd size limits, has taken a piecemeal response in recent weeks. He’s received criticism from all quarters, including from those wanting stringent public health regulations and those who believe government should be hands-off.
Meanwhile, the seven-day average of COVID-19 cases in state has grown by nearly eight times since June, and every measurable virus statistic has considerably worsened.
Reeves’ low approval rating stands in contrast to the high approvals of his predecessor, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. In Bryant’s final quarter as governor in late 2019, he enjoyed one of the highest approval ratings of any governor in the nation: 55% of voters approved of his performance, and 25% disapproved.
Other findings from the poll released on Tuesday:
- Mississippi voters are evenly divided on the state’s direction, with 35% saying the state is moving in the right direction, 39% in the wrong direction and 26% unsure.
- Just 27% approve of the Mississippi Legislature’s performance, compared to 44% who disapprove and 29% who say they don’t have enough information to rate their work.
- Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann currently has a 39% approval rating, with nearly a quarter saying they disapprove. 37% did not have enough information to evaluate his performance.
- Voters are divided on the performance of Attorney General Lynn Fitch, with 33% approving, 34% disapproving and 32% lacking sufficient information about her work.
- 42% believe the measures taken by Mississippi’s state government have not gone far enough to stop the spread of COVID-19. 36% feel the measures have been appropriate, while just 16% say the state has gone too far already.
- Just over 42% favor eliminating the state’s income tax as proposed by Governor Reeves, a proposition opposed by 36% of voters. Another 22% remain unsure.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
- Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.
- You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
- You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
- You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
- Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
- You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
- You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
- Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
- If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.