A recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that President Biden’s approval ratings remain going in a steep decline. With a majority of Americans (53%) disapproving his job as president, a sharp decline from only a couple of months ago, when 55% of respondents approved of the job the President was doing.
The Pew Research poll is just the newest survey indicating that Biden’s popularity is deep underwater, last week similar polls from YouGov/The Economist and Gallup also showed Biden’s approval rating below 50%. Fivethirtyeights’ poll aggregator shows that 49.3% of Americas disapprove of the President, while only 45.5% approve of it, which is a very long way from the 53% approval and 36% disapproval he had when taking office in January.
The continuous decline of Biden’s approval ratings come at a time when the President has faced a series of domestic and foreign political crisis which had earned him criticisms from both sides of the aisle. Since July, the Biden administration oversaw the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left 13 American soldiers and hundreds of Afghan civilians dead, and is now facing both a new crisis in the southern border while also trying to solve an ongoing civil war within its party that can destroy Biden’s domestic policy agenda.
Biden’s position has worsened even among Democrats
The precarious position of the president is not relegated exclusively to Republicans or Republican-leaning voters. The survey showed that support among Democrats for the president has also diminished, although a huge majority (75%) of Democratic-leaning voters approve of the president’s job the number has suffered a 13-point decline since June.
Furthermore, Democrats’ support towards Biden has softened considerably over the last few months. According to the Pew Research poll, only 46% of democratic-leaning voters say they strongly approve of the president’s job, a significant decrease from the 65% of respondents who said the same thing back in March 2021.
Although a substantial majority still support him, fewer Democrats also approve of Biden’s capabilities to lead the country over the issues compared to March 2021. The president has suffered an 11-point decrease over his handling of the COVID-19 crisis, eight points over Democrat’s confidence in his ability to handle foreign policy crisis, nine points over his handling of the economy, twelve points over his way to handle immigration, and an astonishing 19-point drop within Democrats who think that Biden can bring the country back together.
Biden is viewed as mentally unfit by a majority of Americans
To make matters worse, the President’s approval ratings on personal traits have also decreased significantly among Americans of all political leanings. Fewer Americans view him as a good role model, honest, someone who cares about the ordinary people or that he stands up for what he believes in than in March 2021, with the decline being observed in both Republican-leaning voters and democratic-leaning voters.
The personal trait where the president has suffered the steepest decline is in that of mental fitness. In March of this year a slight majority of Americans (54%) believed that the President was “mentally sharp”, that number is now only 43%, an eleven-point drop in six months. The sharpest decline in this issue was observed among Democrat-leaning voters, as Biden suffered a fall from 86% who thought he was mentally sharp in March to 73% who thought the same in September 2021.
The Presiden is also in deep trouble among Latinos
Finally, one of the other key polling data points that this survey depicted is that Biden is also deep in trouble with the Latino community, a fact that has been depicted in other polls as well. The Pew Research poll showed that although a majority of Hispanic voters continue to have a favorable view towards the President’s job, the number has suffered a significant decrease over the last few months.
According to the survey, the President has suffered a sixteen-point collapse in his ratings among Latino voters in just two months. Biden went from having a healthy 72% total approval rating among Hispanics in July to 56% in September. Furthermore, even the support that Biden still maintains within the Latino community is weak, with only 34% of Hispanics saying they “strongly approve” of the job the president is doing.
Earlier last week, YouGov/The Economist released a poll with arguably even worst numbers for Biden showing that only 42% of Latinos approved of the job the President is doing, while 39% disapproved of his job and 20% said they were not sure.
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.