The pile-up of crisis after crisis, most of them created by the Biden administration, is still taking a toll on the President’s approval rating. This is nothing new, we’ve documented since late August with a few different stories on the freefall of Biden’s poll numbers since continued Covid case outbreaks, the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, and the ongoing crisis at the U.S. southern border.
Now, however, a new poll out of Iowa sheds some light on just how low Biden’s approval has sunk with specific groups of voters and what it might mean for the 2022 midterm elections coming up next year.
The numbers, from the Des Moines Register, give Biden some grim marks when it comes to the direction of the country and how poorly his performance has been since his inauguration:
Thirty-one percent of Iowans approve of how Biden is handling his job, while 62% disapprove and 7% are not sure, according to the latest Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll.
That’s a 12 percentage point drop in approval from June, the last time the question was asked. Biden’s disapproval numbers jumped by 10 points during the same period. In June, 43% approved and 52% disapproved.
Thirty-one percent approval among Iowa voters is bad. Very bad. It’s when you put that number into context that the truly negative nature can be understood. The Des Moines Register has been keeping track of approval numbers for President Obama and President Trump as well, and the comparison is very disastrous for Biden.
The result? President Biden’s 31 percent approval among Iowa voters is lower than the lowest numbers ever recorded for Obama or Trump, and barely above the low for President George W. Bush:
Biden’s job approval rating is lower than former President Donald Trump’s worst showing in the Iowa Poll. The former Republican president’s worst job approval was 35% in December 2017. Other recent presidents’ worst Iowa Poll results: Barack Obama, 36%, in February 2014, and George W. Bush, 25%, in September 2008.
Writing for CNN, editor Chris Cillizza sees major warning signs flashing for Democrats in 2022, especially if they think they have any chance of retaining their majority in the House or expanding their tiny majority in the Senate:
This poll is rightly understood as a blaring red alarm for not just Biden but especially down-ballot Democrats — in Iowa and elsewhere — who will be running in the 2022 midterms.
While Iowa is not the pure swing state that it was in, say, 2000, it remains a place where Democrats can and do win — both in statewide elections and in congressional districts. Democrats, as recently as 2020, controlled three of the state’s four House seats although Republicans won both the first and second districts back last November. And both are considered Democratic re-takeover targets in 2022 — depending, of course, on what the congressional map winds up looking like.
If Biden’s numbers are anywhere close to this bad in other swing states — and districts — Democrats’ hopes of holding onto their very narrow three-seat House majority are somewhere close to nonexistent.
Iowa is typically a “red” state, but not Texas red or Nebraska red, but it generally tilts Republican with some exceptions as noted above.
The point made by Cillizza is that Biden’s approval or disapproval is likely mirrored around the country in swing districts that look a lot like the ones in Iowa. At the moment, Biden is drowning in disapproval, and he’s taking his party down with him.
There’s no doubt that Democrats are staring at an electoral disaster in 2022 unless the headwinds drastically change. Republicans will do themselves no favors, often finding ways to foil their own chances at victory, but Democrats are on the ropes right now with Biden’s failed presidency leading the way.
Now does it make sense why Vice President Kamala Harris is missing from every major press conference and presidential action? Her only job right now is to make sure Biden’s failures don’t spill on her personal political career. Good luck with that.
