When President Biden first announced a federal vaccine mandate back in September, the media was joyful and propped up the news with polling that showed what appeared to be broad yet mushy support for forced Covid vaccination. Jumping ahead a couple of months, and the backlash continues to brew as Biden is still losing support week after week from key constituencies within his own voting coalition.
There are two bits of polling out this week that give us a greater glimpse into the president’s declining approval number and continued trust erosion of the American people.
The first, from the Economist/YouGov presidential tracking poll, gives Biden his lowest approval number recorded in this poll since the start of his presidency at just 42% approval to 51% disapproval:
According to this week’s poll, Mr Biden’s net approval rating is a dismal minus nine points. Although this is better than Mr Trump’s score of -15 at this point in his presidency, it is far below Mr Obama’s plus six. And support for Mr Biden is deteriorating rapidly. His net approval rating has fallen by more than ten points since his 200th day in office, just over two months ago. Mr Obama’s fell by only four, and Mr Trump’s by just one, over the corresponding period.
As the Economist notes, Biden entered office with a higher vote share than Barack Obama received back in 2012 or Donald Trump in 2016, yet Biden has fallen quickly from the early high of support had back in January. Biden is becoming politically toxic for Democrats and growing worse by the week. Nothing seems to be slowing Biden’s decline in popularity as his administration continues to shift blame and provide no solutions for America’s challenges.
As far as the reasoning goes, the Economist poll finds voters dissatisfied with Biden’s marks on–what else–the economy:
A more likely reason for the president’s sagging approval ratings is his low marks on health care (just 37% of respondents approve of his performance) and the economy (39%), the issues mentioned first and third most often by voters as their top concerns (climate ranks second). Among political independents he fares even worse.
The economy is getting worse month to month, and inflation is devouring any gains being made by American households recovering from Covid’s destruction since March of 2020. There are no bright spots in Biden’s economy or bright spots for his legislative goals which also sit in the toilet thanks to a progressive overreach on the $3.5 trillion price tag.
Where is Biden headed? Americans are already reminiscing about the days of President Trump’s economy while they watch the country decline under Biden’s failed leadership.
The next polling data point comes from Morning Consult which finds that among vaccinated Americans, especially black Americans, Biden’s support is continuing to erode since the announcement of his Covid vaccine mandate:
Biden’s net approval rating — the share who approve of his job performance minus the share who disapprove — is down 16 percentage points among Black voters since Sept. 8, the day before he issued the mandates.
The Oct. 10-12 surveys show 69 percent of Black voters approve of Biden’s job performance, while 25 percent disapprove.
Biden’s approval rating among vaccinated Black voters is 79 percent, while it stands at 54 percent among unvaccinated Black voters, who are roughly twice as likely to say they disapprove of him (36 percent compared to 17 percent).
Black voters seem to be abandoning Biden despite voting for him in 2020. For whatever reason, perhaps it’s the failing economy, perhaps it’s forced vaccination among a skeptical demographic, Biden continues to drop like a rock with this key Democratic voting bloc.
Biden’s numbers started dropping in August, and since that time, it’s been one steady weekly decline after another. Call it death by a thousand cuts, or however you prefer to categorize it, but Biden is losing support all over the demographic map. He’s down with independents, down with moderates, down with black voters, he’s down across the board because there is no single issue his administration has shown any competence in tackling.
