Contrary to the media’s months-long attempt to make Americans think President Donald Trump was directly responsible for the more than 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the country, people living in counties with the worst surges voted overwhelmingly for the incumbent president.
The Associated Press analyzed 376 counties throughout the country with the “highest number of new cases per capita” and found that a whopping 93% of those counties voted for Trump. This percentage was higher than counties that weren’t hit as severely, the outlet reported.
“Most were rural counties in Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin — the kinds of areas that often have lower rates of adherence to social distancing, mask-wearing and other public health measures, and have been a focal point for much of the latest surge in cases,” the AP reported. “Taking note of the contrast, state health officials are pausing for a moment of introspection. Even as they worry about rising numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, they hope to reframe their messages and aim for a reset on public sentiment now that the election is over.”
Dr. Marcus Plescia, Chief Medical Officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told the AP that officials in these counties need to engage with the citizens.
“Public health officials need to step back, listen to and understand the people who aren’t taking the same stance” on social distancing and mask-wearing, Plescia said.
“I think there’s the potential for things to get less charged and divisive,” he continued, adding that a message reset could bridge the gap between the officials and the residents and help lower the number of new cases.
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The AP’s analysis was limited to counties in which at least 95% of precincts had reported results, and grouped counties into six categories based on the rates of COVID-19 cases they’d experienced per 100,000 residents.
Polling, too, shows voters who split on Republican Trump vs. Democrat Joe Biden differed on whether the pandemic is under control.
Thirty-six percent of Trump voters described the pandemic as completely or mostly under control, and another 47% said it was somewhat under control, according to AP VoteCast, a nationwide survey of more than 110,000 voters conducted for the AP by NORC at the University of Chicago. Meanwhile, 82% of Biden voters said the pandemic is not at all under control.
In addition, the AP found, voters in many red states reported that the pandemic was at least somewhat under control, including in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
In blue states, predictably, voters said the pandemic was not under control. Fifty-seven percent of people in Wisconsin said the pandemic was not under control, while 55% said the same in Washington state. Voters nationwide were pretty much divided on whether the pandemic was under control or not.