Voters in North Carolina want their senior senator, Richard Burr, to resign after he sold stocks following a briefing on the coronavirus threat before it erupted into a global pandemic, a new poll finds.
The survey, which was conducted by Public Policy Polling, revealed that 50% of voters in North Carolina believe that Burr should resign from office while 23% would oppose his resignation. Sixty-three percent of Democratic respondents and 53% of independents agreed that Burr should resign.
A plurality of Republicans, however, said Burr should stay in office. Thirty-eight percent of Republicans want Burr to stay in office. Of those polled, 31% want a resignation.
Burr’s disapproval rating jumped 18 percentage points to 54%. His approval rating dipped 10 percentage point from the last time this survey was taken in June, falling to 22%.
Respondents were not alerted until later in the survey that Burr sold off $1.7 million in stocks that were affected by the coronavirus. After they explained the situation, support for his resignation jumped to 60%, with 22% opposed to him resigning. Sixty-nine percent said Burr’s choice to sell off stocks gave them “very serious concerns” about his leadership.
While Burr’s reputation took a hit, his North Carolina counterpart, Sen. Thom Tillis, also experienced high disapproval ratings, with 48% disapproving and 26% approving. Tillis was also haunted by his previous policy positions, including opposition to a bill that required restaurant employees to wash their hands. After respondents were told about Tillis’s hand-washing views, 76% of respondents said it gave them “very serious” concerns about his leadership, including 66% of Republican respondents.
Tillis is up for reelection in 2020. Burr will not face voters again until 2022 if he chooses to run.
Burr has tried to justify his decision to sell stocks after hearing an Intelligence Committee briefing from Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. He has since called for a bipartisan Senate Ethics Committee investigation into his actions.
The poll from Public Policy Polling included responses from 896 voters in North Carolina and was conducted from March 22 to March 23. News of Burr’s stock sales broke on March 19. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
