Support for DeSantis and Abbott drops even further as COVID hospitalizations soar

Support for Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Republican Greg Abbott is continuing to nosedive as the COVID-19 crises in the Sunshine State and Lone Star State grow.

With hospitalizations remaining at dangerously high levels, schools districts are already preparing to fight the DeSantis mask bans in court and vaccines are growing increasingly politicized. Florida also set a record for COVID cases on Thursday.

In Texas, health workers are enduring physical and verbal attacks and more than 55,600 people in Texas have died from the virus.

A recent Morning Consult poll was released Thursday showing that 51 percent of independent voters now say they disapprove of DeSantis, up from 38 percent less than a month ago.

"DeSantis still has strong support among the GOP base, with more than four in five Florida Republicans saying they still approve of the governor, although that number dipped slightly since the beginning of July, from 87 percent to 83 percent," said Forbes.

Approval among all voters shows a 14 percent drop for DeSantis in the past two months.

Meanwhile, in Texas, 3 million people have COVID, and support for Abbott is also falling. In early July 48 percent of independent voters said they disapproved of Abbott but that has grown to 54 percent. Abbott has fallen 7 points overall in the polls. That number has consistently fallen since April 2020 when the pandemic was beginning to increase in the U.S. Things grew worse over the winter when the state's power grid collapsed under a severe winter storm.

"By the last week in August, more than 23,000 new cases of Covid-19 were being reported in Florida daily, which was roughly 30 percent higher than the state's previous peak in January," said Forbes. "Hospitalizations and Covid-related deaths also hit all-time highs as the delta variant wreaked havoc in the Sunshine State. Texas was also dealing with a dangerous spike in late August, averaging in excess of 17,000 daily infections for the first time since early February."

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