Rutgers scholar Katherine Ognyanova is available to comment on the latest Rutgers-Harvard-Northeastern-Northwestern survey data from The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States.
The researchers polled 20,315 people across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia from Sept. 4-27 about the next COVID-19 relief bill. Respondents were asked if they supported such a bill as well as the types of relief they believed it should include and whether they had received the $300 to $400 supplemental unemployment benefit authorized by President Trump’s executive order of Aug. 5.
To view the full report and findings, click here. Among the findings:
- The highest level of support is for direct cash payments (78%), followed by aid to hospitals (63%), aid to K-12 schools and small businesses loans (57% each), and extended unemployment insurance (53%)
- While Democrats, Republicans, and independents all rate cash payments as their most preferred type of aid (favored by 82%, 72%, and 78%, respectively), this is where consensus support ends.
- Among Republicans, the next-most-favored forms of aid are small business loans and aid to hospitals (55% each), while the least favored forms of aid are to essential industries (35%) and state and local governments (30%).
- Among Democrats, the most-highly-supported forms of aid beyond cash support include aid to hospitals (70%), unemployment insurance supplements (65%), aid to K-12 schools (64%), and aid to small businesses (60%), while the least favored type is aid to essential industries (41%).
- Beyond cash payments (76%), white Americans are most likely to support aid to hospitals (63%) and small business loans (59%), while their least-supported aid types are aid to essential industries (38%) and to state and local governments (39%).
- Beyond cash payments (84%), Black respondents are relatively likely to support unemployment insurance (68%), aid to hospitals (67%), and aid to K-12 schools (64%).
- Over 70% of respondents in every state and the District of Columbia support a new relief package.
- Aid to essential industries (such as airlines) is the least popular potential provision.
- Only 30% of respondents who said they are unemployed indicated that they received the $300 or $400 unemployment insurance supplements made available through President Trump’s August executive action. Of those, only 2% said that they received the full $400.
Ognyanova, an assistant professor at Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information, does research in network science, computational social science, social technology, media, civic and political communication.
###
Broadcast interviews: Rutgers University–New Brunswick has broadcast-quality TV and radio studios available for remote live or taped interviews with Rutgers experts. For more information, contact Neal Buccino [email protected]
ABOUT RUTGERS—NEW BRUNSWICK
Rutgers University–New Brunswick is where Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, began more than 250 years ago. Ranked among the world’s top 60 universities, Rutgers’s flagship university is a leading public research institution and a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. It is home to internationally acclaimed faculty and has 12 degree-granting schools and a Division I Athletics program. It is the Big Ten Conference’s most diverse university. Through its community of teachers, scholars, artists, scientists, and healers, Rutgers is equipped as never before to transform lives.
RSS