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The Democratic Party and President Joe Biden have “lost ground” to Republicans on key issues for voters in a critical election year as the governing party seeks to maintain its majority in Congress.
Data from a new Wall Street Journal (WSJ) poll indicates that the president’s approval rating continues to decline, with 57% of respondents expressed they are dissatisfied with his performance versus 42% who approve it.
According to the WSJ analysis, Republicans have gained support among black and Hispanic voters since the same poll was conducted last November, a “troubling sign” for Democrats.
Meanwhile, 63% of voters believe the country is “headed in the wrong direction” under the Biden Administration, with 60% describing the state of the economy as “negative.”
These two variables are of utmost importance to voters who, according to the survey, would be more likely to elect a Republican candidate for Congress (46%) than a Democrat (41%) in the November elections.
In addition to voting intentions, voters’ opinion of the parties’ performance also appears to benefit the GOP, with 44% of respondents offering a positive view of Republicans versus 40% for Democrats.
More voters also have a negative opinion of Democrats (55%) than reject to the GOP (51%).
Interestingly, although voting intentions for Biden and Trump reflect a technical tie (45%), Americans today approve of Trump’s performance to a greater extent (48%) than Biden’s (42%.)
And while half of respondents believe Biden is “trying to do the right thing,” 58% believe the president is not focused on the issues of greatest importance to Americans.
Democrats lose to Republicans
Now, when it comes to assessing the ability of both parties to deal with specific issues, Republicans lead Democrats in almost every area.
Americans believe the GOP is better able to rebuild the economy (47% vs. 34%); present a better economic plan (45% vs. 37%); reduce crime (46% vs. 26%); control inflation (47% vs. 30%); protect the middle class (41% vs. 40%); handle foreign policy (44% vs. 37%); handle the situation in Ukraine (38% vs. 31%); keep children in schools (40% vs. 32%); secure the borders (51% vs. 25%); fix the immigration system (45% vs. 30%) and lower taxes (44% vs. 29%.)
In contrast, surveyed voters believe the Democratic Party outperforms the Republican Party in its ability to control the COVID-19 pandemic (42% vs. 31%); ensure the wealthy pay “a fair share” of taxes (41% vs. 25%); reduce health care costs (44% vs. 29%); lower medication prices (41% vs. 28%); and improve education (41% vs. 36%.)
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is also one of the key issues for the voters surveyed. According to the poll, 89% of Americans follow the war between the two countries closely while just 10% say they do not follow it “that closely.” Of the total, 46% believe the U.S. is not doing enough to help the Ukrainians while 35% believe enough is being done.
Some 55% of respondents believe the U.S. should send more military equipment to Ukraine and impose new sanctions against Russia, while 29% believe a no-fly zone should be created over Ukrainian skies and 25% believe it is appropriate to send more U.S. troops to allied countries in Europe to help.
On the same spectrum, 79% of Americans think President Biden was right to ban Russian crude oil imports to the United States, and 47% approve of his handling of the situation in Ukraine versus 46% who disapprove.
However, a large majority of Americans (83%) believe that gas prices will rise as a result of sanctions against Russia, and only 10% would support sending American soldiers to Ukrainian soil to fight the Russian military.
Another interesting fact is that, despite the invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s nuclear threat, Americans overwhelmingly consider China to be a greater security (52%) and economic (73%) threat than Russia.
The Wall Street Journal poll was conducted by Impact Research and Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, who surveyed 1,500 registered voters between March 2 and March 7.
