NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has lost ground with voters since May, according to a new Vanderbilt University poll released Thursday that suggests the 10-point drop may be linked to the Republican governor’s signing into law a package of laws reining in public health measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 17,000 Tennesseans.
The survey of 1,002 registered voters, conducted Nov. 16-Dec. 6, found Tennesseans are much less worried about contracting COVID-19 and fairly evenly split over the state’s 2020 abortion law, which seeks to ban the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.
Lee, who took office in 2019 and is running for re-election in 2022, is the most popular Tennessee elected official covered by the survey. But the survey shows his job approval rating fell from 65% to 55% since May while those disapproving of him rose from 29% in May to 38% in December.
John Geer, a Vanderbilt political scientist and poll co-director, said the Republican governor’s drop in standing may be the result of actions taken by himself and his fellow Republicans, who hold supermajorities in the General Assembly.