Report: Americans Support Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests and N95 Masks

The January 2022 Daily Kos/Civiqs Poll asked 1,390 registered voters in the United States about the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2024 presidential election, right-wing militias, book bans, the Senate filibuster, and more.

COVID-19 and Vaccination

Americans support the Biden administration’s plan to distribute free at-home COVID-19 tests and N95 masks. A majority (51%) approves of sending four free test kits to every household that requests them, including 85% of Democrats, 43% of Independents, and even one in five Republicans (20%). Another 9% of Americans believe that the Biden administration should be doing even more. A similar 54% of voters approve of the Biden administration’s plan to distribute free N95 masks through pharmacies and community centers.

Former President Donald Trump has recently been promoting COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots. This has done little to change Americans’ opinions about him. Three-quarters of Americans (74%) say it makes no difference to them, while 11% have a better opinion of Trump and 13% feel worse about him as a result. These results are consistent across partisan groups: Democrats (75%), Republicans (75%), and Independents (73%) all say that promoting vaccines makes no difference to their feelings towards Trump. Among Republicans, Trump’s promotion of vaccination makes 12% feel better about him and 11% feel worse.

Americans are divided over how much credit Trump deserves for development of the COVID-19 vaccines. A majority of voters (63%) gives Trump at least a small amount of credit for the development of the COVID-19 vaccines, with 39% giving him a great deal of credit and 24% giving him some credit. Another 15% give him not very much credit, while 20% give him no credit at all. Despite Republicans’ greater vaccine skepticism, they overwhelmingly believe that Trump deserves a great deal (78%) or some (14%) credit for developing the vaccines.

The 2024 Presidential Election

Most Americans do not want the next presidential election to be a repeat of 2020. Large majorities of voters do not want either President Joe Biden (59%) or former President Donald Trump (59%) to run for president again in 2024.

Only 28% of voters would like to see Biden run for reelection in 2024. Even among voters in his own party, only 46% of Democrats want Biden to run again, while 30% do not and 24% are unsure. Black voters are among the most supportive of a Biden 2024 campaign: 52% want to see Biden run again, while 29% say no and 19% are unsure.

Fewer than one in three Americans (30%) want former President Trump to run for president again in 2024. Two-thirds of Republicans (66%) want Trump to run, but 16% do not, and 18% are unsure. White voters without a college degree are more likely than white voters with college degrees to support another Trump campaign, with 43% in support and 45% opposed. Among white voters with college degrees, 60% do not want Trump to run again.

People who voted for Donald Trump for president in 2020 increasingly view themselves as Republican Party supporters rather than Trump supporters. Half (49%) of Republicans now consider themselves more of a Republican Party supporter than a Trump supporter, while 43% say they are more of a Trump supporter. One year ago, in a January 2021 Daily Kos/Civiqs poll, these numbers were reversed: 57% of Republicans said they were more of a Trump supporter, while 36% said they were more of a Republican Party supporter.

Right-Wing Militias

Americans are hearing about right-wing militias: Half (52%) have heard a lot about them, and an additional 34% say they have heard a little. Frequent MSNBC viewers are most likely (90%) to have heard a lot about right-wing militias. Only 31% of frequent Fox News viewers have heard a lot about right-wing militias.

About four in ten Americans (41%) say that right-wing militias like the Oath Keepers pose a significant threat to the U.S. government. Another 10% say that militias are somewhat of a threat, and 6% find them to be a minor threat. Just over a third of all Americans (35%), and two-thirds of Republicans (67%), however, do not believe that militia groups are a threat to the U.S. government at all.

Banning Books in Schools

There is a movement among conservative local school boards to remove books dealing with race, sex, gender, and religion from school classrooms and libraries. As many as one in three (34%) Americans -- including 67% of Republicans -- do not believe that classrooms in their local school districts should contain books with gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender characters. Another 8% of Americans feel that classrooms should contain some books with LGBTQ characters -- but fewer than there are now. Half of Americans (48%), led by Democrats (79%) and Independents (50%), think that books with LGBTQ characters do belong in school classrooms and libraries.

Americans express very high support for books written by and about people of color in school classrooms and libraries. Over 9 in 10 Americans (93%) say that classrooms and libraries in their local school districts should contain books by and about people of color. There is overwhelming agreement among all partisan groups on this point, with 97% of Democrats and 88% of Republicans in support.

The Senate Filibuster

In the wake of the recent failure of Senate Democrats to alter filibuster procedures in order to pass voting rights legislation, 48% of Americans support either eliminating (35%) or reforming (13%) the Senate filibuster. A substantial majority of Democratic voters (67%) would like to see the filibuster eliminated, with another 19% saying it should be reformed. Over 8 in 10 Republicans (83%), and 43% of Americans overall, want to keep the Senate filibuster in place.

Americans’ views about the Senate filibuster are nearly unchanged from a June 2021 Daily Kos/Civiqs poll that found that 51% of Americans supported either eliminating (38%) or reforming (13%) the filibuster.

Civiqs surveyed 1,390 registered voters in the United States from January 22-25, 2022. The survey was conducted online, among selected members of the Civiqs research panel. Sampled individuals were emailed by Civiqs and responded using a personalized link to the survey at civiqs.com. The survey results are weighted by age, race, gender, education, party identification, and region to be representative of the population of registered voters in the United States. The general design effect due to weighting is 1.05. The survey has a margin of error of ±2.7% at the 95% confidence level, accounting for the design effect.