Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ approval ratings low after disappointing election results
The president and vice president are being perceived in a negative light after recent elections
Although President Joe Biden won an important victory on the recent infrastructure bill, which was passed by the House on Friday, many Americans don’t like the job he’s doing.
Biden’s approval rating, according to USA Today, is now at 38% when measured by a USA Today-Suffolk University poll. That’s just above his lowest rating of 37% in October.
Per The Hill, Biden was unmoved by the poll numbers, saying at a press conference last week, “I didn’t run to determine how well I’m going to do in the polls.”
More concerning though, is that even Biden supporters are divided on whether they want to see the 78-year-old president run again in 2024. The same poll says that two-thirds of Americans – 64% – don’t want to see Biden seek reelection, including 28% of Democratic voters.
Vice President Kamala Harris‘ approval ratings are even lower, according to the poll. The nation’s first Black, Southeast Asian VP has an abysmal 28% approval rating. Fifty-one percent disapprove of the job she’s doing while 21% are undecided.
The USA Today-Suffolk University poll reached 1,000 registered voters via landline and cellphone with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
While Biden may not chase approval ratings, history has shown that they do impact the midterm elections, which hurt any president who finds themselves at odds with the majority party. Polls say now that Republicans would defeat any Democratic congressional challengers by a percentage of 46% to 38%, per USA Today.
While the infrastructure bill, and the jobs and regional improvements it comes with are popular with voters, the upcoming vote on the Build Better Back bill is one that the public still has mixed feelings about.
The poll shows 47% of voters are in favor of the bill while 44% are against it. The $1.85 trillion bill has provisions that Biden believes directly impact working people – from improved Medicaid and Medicare benefits, funds for affordable housing, and for the expansion of early childhood education with universal pre-K for three and four-year-olds.
“I don’t intend to be anybody but Joe Biden. That’s who I am. And what I’m trying to do is do the things that I ran on to do,” he said Saturday, per NPR. “Ordinary, hard-working Americans are really, really — been put through the wringer the last couple years, starting with COVID.”
He added that in his view, voters want the president to forge ahead with the progressive agenda in the bill, particularly after the victory of the infrastructure plan. “They want us to deliver,” Biden said. “Last night, we proved we can.”
There is one area of government that has lower approval ratings than the president and vice-president. According to the poll, just 12% of voters surveyed think Congress is doing a good job.
Biden’s already low approval ratings are even lower after the disappointing results of the midterm elections, USA Today reported Sunday. After years of Democratic leadership, Virginia voted in a Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, seen as a victor based on his stance on critical race theory being taught in schools.
“To teach our children to divide everyone through a lens of race, and call one group ‘oppressors’ and one group ‘victims’ and pit them against one another is not right,” Youngkin said to a crowd at a pre-election rally, per NPR. “We know it’s not right.”
Have you subscribed to the Grio podcasts, Dear Culture or Acting Up? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
