Voters want more federal government involvement in the response to the coronavirus crisis, according to a Suffolk University/USA TODAY national poll, with 50 percent saying that so far there has been too little federal government involvement in the health aspect of the pandemic, 33 percent saying the involvement has been appropriate and 11 percent saying there has been too much government involvement.

Forty-five percent of voters fault the government’s response to the economic fallout from coronavirus as not enough; 36 percent said it has been adequate; and 10 percent said there has been too much government involvement.

Fifty percent of voters say that government should do more to solve the country’s problems in general; 40 percent disagree.

“The national emergency is changing people’s attitudes about what they fairly recently would have called ‘big government,’” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. “Given that many voters identify our two major parties by how much they want government involved in people’s lives, it will be interesting to see how nominees for president and down-ballot offices spin this issue in November.”

While 48 percent of voters named the coronavirus as one of the most important issues affecting their vote for president, 52 percent said they disapproved of President Donald Trump’s response to the pandemic, while 45 percent said they approved. In terms of the president’s overall job performance, 53 percent said they disapprove, and 43 saying they approve. Trump’s stopping U.S. funding of the World Health Organization was opposed by 53 percent of voters, while 38 percent supported the move.

Methodology

The nationwide Suffolk University/USA Today survey was conducted through live interviews of cell phone and land line users. The survey of 1,000 respondents was conducted April 21 – 25. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Results are posted on the Suffolk University Political Research Center website. For more information, contact David Paleologos at 781-290-9310, [email protected].