A poll conducted by Virginia-based political pollster Cygnal and the Infectious Disease Prevention Network found that 69% of the state’s voters and 57% of the state’s likely Republican primary voters oppose eliminating school vaccination requirements. (Getty Images)
Most West Virginia voters support maintaining mandatory vaccinations in schools, according to a poll released last week.
The poll found that 69% of the state’s voters and 57% of the state’s likely Republican primary voters oppose eliminating school vaccination requirements.
The The survey was conducted in February 2026 from a Virginia-based political polling firm Cygnal and the Infectious Disease Prevention Network, an organization that advocates for vaccinations. That included 500 general voters and 388 likely Republican primary voters.
In addition to West Virginia, the agency surveyed twelve other Republican-leaning states: South Carolina, Idaho, Montana, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Iowa, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas.
The poll found that a majority of the overall electorate in every state and a majority of GOP voters in six states oppose eliminating mandatory vaccinations in schools.
“I think there’s a sense that Republicans in particular are very divided on this issue, and what we’ve found in West Virginia and, frankly, 13 other Republican states is that there’s a very clear two-to-one opposition to doing away with vaccine requirements over and over again,” Chris Lane, senior partner and pollster at Cygnal, told West Virginia Watch. “It’s just the louder voices on both sides that I think are driving the perception, but the numbers are extremely clear.”
All states require school children to be vaccinated against a number of infectious diseases, including polio, measles and chickenpox. Florida announced it wanted to end everything Vaccination requirements, including for students.
Specifically, the poll asked whether voters support or oppose policies similar to Florida’s in West Virginia.
The majority of the survey was conducted through online surveys sent via SMS. Survey respondents are selected based on a number of factors, including history and whether they said they were likely to vote in the Republican primary this year, Lane said.
“We use a number of validators to ensure that the people we are speaking to actually represent what we want a Republican primary audience to look like in West Virginia,” Lane said. “And then we have a set of quotas that we insist on adhering to that are fully representative of gender, age, education level, different parts of the state, ideology, race, income and voting history.”
The general voter survey had a margin of error of 4.38% and the Republican voter survey had a margin of error of 4.97%.
Lane said the margin of error is less essential in a survey than the effective sample size, which he said his company uses.
Erin Abramsohn, executive director of the Infectious Disease Prevention Network, said the organization conducted the survey to better understand what voters think about vaccines and public health policy.
“Our surveys help states understand that access to and trust in vaccines is often much more nuanced than the public debate suggests,” she wrote in an email to West Virginia Watch. “Most people still want access to vaccines, trust their healthcare providers and support measures that keep communities vigorous.
“We use survey data to shape legislative strategy, inform communications, support local advocates and help elected officials feel supportive of policies that ensure vaccine access,” she said.
She added that the survey helps the organization measure public support for vaccine access and protection, identify effective messages and provide policymakers with credible data to utilize in their decision-making.
This isn’t the only poll that suggests West Virginians support requiring vaccinations in schools. A West Virginia MetroNews from September 2025 The survey found that 71% of respondents support maintaining mandatory vaccinations in schools. A West Virginia Chamber of Commerce July 2024 Survey found that nearly 80% of 600 respondents believe vigorous students should receive vaccinations against childhood diseases.
The survey did not address exceptions
The Infectious Disease Prevention Network poll did not include questions about whether West Virginia voters support adding religious and philosophical exemptions to the state’s school vaccination requirements, a question the state Supreme Court is expected to decide.
West Virginia is among five states with laws that do not allow families to waive school vaccination requirements based on philosophical or religious objections to the vaccines.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order shortly after taking office in January 2025 that required the state Department of Health to allow religious exemptions. The order is based on the state’s Equal Protection for Religion Act of 2023.
Morrisey did not rescind his order after lawmakers rejected a bill in 2025 that would have codified religious exemptions.
Raleigh County District Judge Michael Froble ruled in November in favor of families suing state and Raleigh County education officials for denying students religious exemptions.
The panels have appealed the decision to the state Supreme Court.
A spokesman for Morrisey did not respond to a request for comment on the survey.
