● Despite a drop in President Biden’s approval rating on the pandemic since June (overall and among key groups), Biden maintains a higher coronavirus approval rating than did Trump at this point last year (49% vs. 34%). 

● President Biden’s approval rating on his handling of the coronavirus pandemic (49%) and the average governor’s approval rating on their handling of the pandemic (45%) are similar. This is in contrast to President’s Trump’s approval rating on coronavirus at this point last year, which was significantly lower than respondents’ approval of their governor’s handling of the crisis (34% vs. 48%). 

● Governors of states with prohibitions on vaccine mandates garner the lowest approval ratings. This relationship holds even after accounting for partisanship, race, gender, vaccination status, the governor's party, and the state's average per capita COVID-19 cases. 

● Governors of states with higher average COVID-19 cases per capita receive lower approval ratings than governors of states where cases are lower.