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Biden’s Approval Ratings Continue to Sink After Electoral Defeat in Virginia

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President Joe Biden’s woes continue, with a newly published Suffolk/USA Today poll showing that the President has a dismal 38% approval rating from the American public. The survey, which shows a 5-point-drop on Biden’s approval ratings compared to a survey also conducted by Suffolk back in September, comes just a few days after the Democratic Party suffered a very costly defeat in the gubernatorial election in Virginia, where the Democrat Terry McAuliffe lost a state that Biden won by 10 points in 2020 to Republican Glenn Youngkin.

The president has been in deep political trouble since August when his approval ratings started to slip at the same time that the President commanded a disastrous American retreat from Afghanistan. Since then, the administration has gone from commanding 51% approval ratings (according to the FiveThirtyEight poll aggregator) to 42.6% in November, an almost eight-point drop.

When compared with recent presidents, Biden has one of the worst poll numbers in history, with only former President Trump having lower poll averages than Biden during their first year in office.

Although the President finally had a political victory this weekend after the House passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was approved with vast GOP support in the Senate back in the summer, the recent Suffolk poll shows that the Biden White House will need more than one positive news cycle to get back on track before the 2022 midterm elections.

biden's-approval-ratings
Biden’s approval ratings have been in a nosedive over the last few months (EFE)

Biden’s approval ratings are not the only ones underwater

The Suffolk/USA Today poll shows that a substantial majority of Americans disapprove of the way the President has done his job, with 59% of Americans saying they do not think the President has done a good job. Furthermore, a substantial amount of Americans have said they are disappointed with Biden, with 46% saying the President has done a worse job than they initially expected of him.

The bad news is not exclusively reserved towards the president, however, as a large majority of the American public has very negative views both in Congressional Democrats and Vice-President Kamala Harris, signaling some larger issues for the Democratic party that go beyond the public image of the current commander-in-chief.

According to the poll, Harris’ numbers are even worst than Biden’s, with only 28% of respondents saying they approve of the job she has been doing as vice-president and 51% saying that they disapprove of the vice-president’s job. The silver lining for VP Harris, however, is that more than a fifth of voters (21%) are still undecided on their opinions towards her, while almost all Americans have already made up their mind on Biden.

Congressional Democrats, who have been mired in a long and very divisive civil war between progressives and moderates over the size and content of Biden’s domestic policy agenda, have received a very hard hit in their public image, with the Suffolk poll showing that the Democratic caucus in Congress only has a 29% favorable rating, compared with the GOP’s 35%.

To make matters worse for Democrats, Republicans hold an eight-point advantage in the congressional ballot, as 46% of respondents said that they would vote for the Republican Party legislative candidates over the 38% who said that they will vote for Democrat candidates in 2022.

Kamala Harris
Vice-president Harris has even worse approval ratings than Biden (EFE)

Biden, a one term president?

The Suffolk poll also gave a glimpse of the Democrat’s prospects looking into the presidential election in 2024, as a vast majority of Americans said they do not wish for Biden to run for re-election in three years. In fact, the survey shows that Americans are more resistant to a Biden bid for re-election than of the prospects of a Trump candidacy, with 63.7% of respondents saying they do not want Biden to run, which is higher than the 58.4% who said the same about Trump.

Even those who supported the president in 2020 are showing dislike for Biden, with a quarter of Democrats and almost 40% of 2020 Biden voters doubting Biden’s ability to run in 2024. In fact, Trump voters are more hopeful of a Biden run (65%) in 2024 than Biden voters.

President Biden has been in a constant state of damage control since the catastrophic Afghan evacuation in August, with the Republican victory in Virginia being the first significant electoral defeat his party has suffered since Biden took office. Although the president still has a year to change course, the latest polls show that Democrats will have a very difficult job getting out of the political hole where they are right now.

Daniel is a Political Science and Economics student from the University of South Florida. He worked as a congressional intern to Rep. Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) from January to May 2020. He also is the head of international analysis at Politiks // Daniel es un estudiante de Cs Políticas y Economía en la Universidad del Sur de la Florida. Trabajo como pasante legislativo para el Representate Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) desde enero hasta mayo del 2020. Daniel también es el jefe de análisis internacional de Politiks.

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