Neither of North Carolina's two Republican senators fared well in the latest PPP survey, with a majority saying one senator should resign and the other senator garnering a dismal 26% job approval rating.
Following revelations that Sen. Richard Burr unloaded up to $1.7 million in stock after a private coronavirus briefing, 50% of Tar Heel voters say Burr should resign, including 63% of Democrats, 53% of independents, and 31% of Republicans. Burr’s seat is up in 2022, but he had said he would not seek reelection even before news of the stock scandal surfaced last week.
However, the state's other GOP senator, Thom Tillis, is running for reelection this year and is underwater by 21 full points: 26-47%. Tillis is famous in the state for opposing the idea of requiring restaurant employees to wash their hands. This declaration from several years ago isn't aging well as the nation grapples with a deadly pandemic in which rigorous hand-washing has become one of the key antidotes to spreading the disease.
"In the current crisis, 76% of voters say that Tillis’ comments on this issue give them ‘very serious’ concerns about him, which includes 84% of Democrats, 77% of independents, and 66% of Republicans," writes PPP. At least Tillis has succeeded in uniting voters across party lines.
State voters also give Donald Trump and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper very different grades for handling of the crisis, with 63-19% approving of Cooper's job performance while just 49-45% approve of Trump's handling of the coronavirus. Presidents usually get a bit of bump in times of crisis, but that has not proven true in any sense for Trump. His overall job approval in North Carolina is slightly underwater at 47-48%.
Sign and send the petition to Congress: Ban the practice of government officials trading stocks while in office.
