Plurality Favor Candidate Who Would Reinstate Lockdowns if COVID Returned

Publication Date: 02/03/2026 5:00 AM CST

Plurality Favor Candidate Who Would Reinstate Lockdowns if COVID Returned

Publication: 02/03/2026 5:00 AM CST

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A comfortable plurality (48%) of voters say that, given a choice, they would choose a candidate who said mandates were an important tool over a candidate who said they did more harm than good.
- Forty-two percent (42%) disagree.
- This is largely unchanged since 2023, when 49% preferred a candidate who said mandates were important and 39% disagreed.
- Over 60% of Republicans and Independents prefer the candidate who said mandates did more harm than good.
- Seventy-three (73%) of Democrats take the opposite view.
Thirty-five percent (35%) of voters rate the way the U.S. and state governments handled COVID as Good or Excellent.
- That's 4 points higher than in July 2025, but down 8 from 43% in May of 2024.
- A Napolitan News survey found that 35% of voters currently rate the response as Poor.
- That's 1 point lower than July and little changed from all of 2025.
- A plurality of Republicans (40%) and Independents (40%) say the situation was handled Poorly, compared to 30% of Democrats.
About half (51%) say that the worst of the pandemic is now behind us, with 28% disagreeing and saying it's still to come.
- That is identical to when we last asked this question in September of 2025.
- Two thirds (66%) of Republicans say the worst is behind us. Democrats are split: 37% say the worst is behind us, while 36% say still to come, and 26% are not sure.
Currently, two thirds (67%) of voters say that getting COVID is pretty much the same as getting the flu or a bad cold.
- This includes three quarters (74%) of Republicans and a solid majority 57% of Democrats.
Two in 5 voters (41%) voters say that the federal government overreacted in ways that did more harm than good, while 45% disagree.
- That is slightly more positive than in July of 2025, though the numbers have only fluctuated a few points for the most part since 2023.
- A solid majority of Republicans (61%) of Republicans say the government overreacted, while slightly more Democrats (65%) disagree.

This data is from a Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 Registered Voters conducted online by Scott Rasmussen, January 28, 2026. RMG Research, Inc., conducted the field work for the survey. It has a margin of error of +/- 3.1.