Three-Quarters Of Voters Want Congress To Pass New Coronavirus Relief

Roughly three-quarters of voters want to see Congress pass new coronavirus relief, a new HuffPost/YouGov poll finds.

Voters say, 74% to 10%, that Congress should pass a new economic stimulus bill in response to the coronavirus pandemic. A near-universal 92% of Democratic voters and a smaller 57% majority of Republican voters say they think Congress should pass such a bill.

Of those who want Congress to do so, 58% say it’s very important to them that such a bill passes. Two-thirds of supporters in households making less than $50,000 annually say that it’s very important.

The poll was fielded last Tuesday through Saturday, following President Donald Trump’s announcement Tuesday that he was calling off negotiations until the Nov. 3 presidential election.

“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Trump tweeted .

Since then, Trump has reversed course , again advocating for a deal. “Republicans should be strongly focused on completing a wonderful stimulus package for the American People!” he tweeted Monday .

A third of voters had heard a lot about Trump’s original statement, with more than 80% saying they’d heard at least something.

Following that question which included the news that Trump had halted negotiations a 64% majority of voters said that Trump and congressional Democrats should restart negotiations right away, with 15% saying they should wait until the election to restart negotiations and 8% that they shouldn’t resume negotiations at all. An 84% majority of Democratic voters favored restarting negotiations immediately. A much smaller but still significant minority of Republican voters diverged from Trump’s position at the time, with 45% saying negotiations should be reopened at once.

The HuffPost/YouGov poll consisted of 1,000 completed interviews conducted Oct. 6-10 among U.S. registered voters, using a sample selected from YouGov’s opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the population.