COVID-19 Consortium

With just 32% of Arizonans approving of his response to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Doug Ducey ranks dead last among governors nationwide in a recent online poll commissioned by the COVID-19 Consortium, a collaboration of several universities to collect data on the pandemic.

President Donald Trump earned a 34% approval rating among Arizonans, making Ducey the only governor to earn an approval rating lower than Trump among voters in the governor's respective state.

→ No New Stay-At-Home Order As COVID-19 Surges In Arizona

"Gov. Ducey has the lowest approval for his COVID-19 response of any governor in the country, dropping from a high of 57% in early May to 32% in late June," the polling report said. "His case offers a cautionary tale of the rapid interplay of politics, policy, and outcomes in the COVID era."

The situation in Arizona is dire enough, and Ducey's numbers are low enough, that an entire section of the report was devoted to Arizona.

Arizona Coronavirus Cases, Deaths

"Arizona presents a particularly notable case with respect to approval of executive response to COVID-19," the report said.

Reporters asked Ducey about these numbers at his press conference Thursday. Ducey did not directly respond to the question about the approval ratings and instead spoke about his response to the pandemic, likening it to a baseball game.

"There's not a clock here, it's inning by inning," he said. "We are in the early innings of this virus, and you (are) critiquing a team before we know what the result is. I'm confident, and today I don't think I could've been anymore direct in laying out the brutal facts of our current reality, and also talking about the actions that can change our situation. I'm confident on the other side of this, Arizona will come out healthier and stronger."

His approval rating with Republicans dropped to 60%, with 29% of independents and 16% of Democrats approving of his performance. Those numbers represent a steady decline from peak approval in early May.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott had the highest approval rating at 75%.