Delawareans are onboard with mask requirements, according to a new University of Delaware Center for Political Communication poll.
More than three-fourths of Delawareans support requiring everyone to wear face masks in public, with 78 percent supporting such a requirement and 19 percent opposed.
Seventy percent of Delaware residents say they always wear masks when outside their homes. Another 15 percent say they wear masks very often, while 10 percent wear them sometimes. Only four percent say they rarely or never wear masks in public.
The findings on masks were questioned by GOP gubernatorial candidate Julieanne Murray in a debate this week with Carney WHYY reported. (See below).
Carney’s GOP challenger says Delaware COVID-19 shutdown based on fear
The state’s residents also back laws to protect transgender students from discrimination. Four in five Delawareans support laws to protect transgender students from discrimination. Since 2018, support for such laws has increased from 75 percent to 81 percent. Over the same period, opposition to protecting transgender students’ rights has decreased from 18 percent to 11 percent. The poll comes as national and statewide debates continue over measures to enact protections for transgender students.
Most Delawareans are very or somewhat concerned about potential problems with the election, with specific concerns about eligible voters not being allowed to vote, the election being rigged and voter fraud. Two-thirds of those polled (68 percent) are concerned that eligible voters will not be allowed to vote, and almost as many (64 percent) are concerned about the election being rigged. In addition, 60% are very or somewhat concerned about voter fraud.
A majority of Delawareans hold favorable views of their governor and congressional delegation. Governor John Carney is viewed favorably by 63 percent of Delawareans. A majority of Delaware residents also holds positive opinions about Delaware’s Congressional delegation. Of those polled, 58 percent view U.S. Senator Chris Coons favorably, 54 percent view U.S. Senator Tom Carper favorably, and 53 percent view U.S. Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester favorably.
Carney, Coons, and Blunt Rochester are currently running for re-election, while Carper is not up for re-election until 2024. Carney, who is running against Republican Julianne Murray, and Blunt Rochester, who is running against Republican Lee Murphy, took part in the Delaware Debates this week at the University of Delaware.
Lieutenant Governor Bethany Hall-Long and Attorney General Kathy Jennings are not well known to Delawareans. Of those polled, 48 percent had not heard of or could not rate Hall-Long, while 49 percent had not heard of or could not rate Jennings. Delawareans familiar with the lieutenant governor and attorney general tended to hold positive views of them: 40 percent rated Hall-Long favorably and 37 percent rated Jennings favorably. Hall-Long is running for re-election in 2020.
Earlier, polling from the Center for Political Communication showed Coons, Rochester and Carney well ahead of their rivals in re-election races.
A blue wave? UD poll shows big leads for Biden, Coons, Rochester, Carney
The National Agenda Opinion Project research was funded by the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication (CPC) with support from the College of Arts and Sciences. The study was supervised by the CPC’s Research Director, Paul Brewer, a professor in the Departments of Communication and Political Science & International Relations.
