Iowa governor’s job approval ticks up: poll

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’s (R) job approval rating has ticked up since June, according to a new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll coming as the state sees rising COVID-19 among children and multiple outbreaks at nursing homes. 

Fifty-three percent of Iowans approve of Reynolds’s current job as governor, up from 51 percent since June. Within party lines, 91 percent of registered Republican voters approve of Reynolds’ overall job, with only 6 percent of registered Democrats approving. 

Fifty-seven percent of voters also approve of Reynolds’s handling of the state’s economy, with 31 percent disapproving. 

Fifty-two percent of Iowa residents also approved Reynolds handling of schools and education in the state, up four percent since June, according to the poll. And 51 percent of Iowans approve of Reynolds’ handling of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which is down from 54 percent, according to the poll. 

In the first week of September, as students returned to school, children made up the largest share of new COVID-19 cases in the state. And as of two weeks ago, 14 nursing homes in Iowa were experiencing coronavirus outbreaks. 

Reynolds has resisted calls for COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the state, and she called President Biden’s federal mandate “dangerous and unprecedented.”

Reynolds, who has been governor since 2017, is up for reelection next year. Democratic challengers state Rep. Ras Smith and business owner Deidre DeJear recently announced their campaigns to oust her. 

The Register/Mediacom Poll, was conducted by Selzer&Co., surveyed 805 Iowan adults through Sept 12-15 and has a sampling error of 3.5 percentage points.