The best antidote to hot takes is hard data, and the latest Daily Kos/Civiqs poll is here with your cure. This survey of 1,316 adults was conducted online from Dec. 5-8 and reveals that 52% of Americans think that the Biden administration will do a better job of handling the coronavirus pandemic than the Trump administration. Most Americans (58%) accept the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, and 51% believe the election was conducted fairly. However, only 18% of Republicans have accepted the outcome, and 87% of them say the election was unfair.
Other noteworthy findings in this month’s poll include:
- Most Americans (51%) support the government canceling up to $50,000 of a person’s college student loan debt.
- Of those who voted in this year’s election, 64% of Americans report that they cast their ballots early or by mail; 76% of Democrats voted early or by mail.
- 41% of Americans report that they or someone they know has coronavirus (up from 28% in October’s Daily Kos/Civiqs poll).
- 52% of Americans plan to take a coronavirus vaccine if it becomes available (up from just 34% in the October poll).
- 54% of Americans believe it will take six months or more for the coronavirus outbreak to settle down and for things in the United States to get back to normal; 24% of Americans believe that things will never get back to normal.
Additional issues surveyed include views on media reporting on the coronavirus and viewership of Fox News, Newsmax, One American News Network, and MSNBC.
This poll’s numbers reveal that not only do Americans have greater faith in Biden’s presidential election win than most sitting GOP members of Congress, but also that Americans continue to grapple with the ever-growing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This month’s survey also provides strong evidence that frequent Fox News viewers are deeply disconnected from mainstream Americans. Despite the fact that 51% of Americans believe the 2020 presidential election was conducted fairly, just 11% of frequent Fox News viewers think it was. Fox News viewership also affects peoples’ faith in media overall; while just 43% of Americans believe the media is making the coronavirus pandemic sound worse than it is, a whopping 76% of faithful Fox watchers believe this.
Civiqs is an award-winning survey research firm that conducts scientific public opinion polls on the Internet through its nationally representative online survey panel. Founded in 2013, Civiqs specializes in political and public policy polling. Results from Civiqs’ daily tracking polls can be found online at civiqs.com.