Time for states to reopen their economies? Political divisions emerge as Midwest governors weigh coronavirus cases vs. unemployment.

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads across America, many of the nation’s governors find themselves in a political vise, squeezed between pressure to reopen local economies amid record unemployment and to keep citizens safe from a highly contagious disease.

No region in the country has met the public health crisis with a wider range of responses than the Midwest, which is home to large rural swaths with fewer cases of the virus and major cities such as Detroit and Chicago that are among the hardest hit.

As the U.S. tops 1...