PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island residents had more faith in their state and local governments than they did in federal lawmakers in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a poll from the COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States.
Of 437 Rhode Island residents surveyed between Dec. 22 and Jan. 17, 13.3% said they trusted their municipal government “a lot,” 46.4% said they trusted it “some,” 30% said “not too much” and 10.3% said “not at all.”
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When asked if they trusted their state governments, 10.1% of the Rhode Islanders surveyed said “a lot,” 46.9% said “some,” 31.4% said “not too much,” and 11.6% said “not at all.”
Rhode Islanders’ level of trust in the White House and Congress was lower than their trust of their state and local governments, which followed a national trend. Of the Rhode Islanders surveyed, 24% said they didn’t trust the White House at all and 27.8% “not too much” in handling the pandemic. However, 37% of respondents had “some” faith in the White House’s handling of the pandemic while 11.2% had “a lot.”
In trusting Congress, 37% of Rhode Island residents surveyed said “not too much” while 22.1% said “not at all.” On the other side, 33.4% of residents surveyed had “some” trust while 6.4% had “a lot.”
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump didn’t fare much better.
Of the Rhode Island residents surveyed about the trust they had in Biden to “do what’s right” during the COVID-19 pandemic, 31.1% said they “not too much” and 25.8% said “not at all.”
Biden did get some support, with 31.2% responding “some” trust in him to “do what’s right” and 11.9% responding “a lot.”
About 54.5% of Rhode Islanders surveyed said they did “not at all” have any faith in Trump’s handling of the pandemic while 17.4% said “not too much.” Only 19.4% said “some” and 8.7% said a lot.
The consortium, which includes researchers from Harvard University, Northeastern University, Rutgers University and Northwestern University, has surveyed approximately 20,000 people in each state 20 different times since the pandemic since April 2020.
