Coming off the midterm elections where Democrats didn’t do as badly as predicted, you’d think President Biden would enjoy an upswing in his approval numbers.
Not so, according to Quinnipiac, as the President continues living in the mid-30s while the country faces fuel shortages this winter. The end result is that despite the election results, the verdict on Biden’s handling of crisis and crisis has been poor and his leadership in the White House is nonexistent:
Americans give President Joe Biden a negative job approval rating, as 36 percent approve of the job he’s doing, while 54 percent disapprove.
Among registered voters, President Biden receives a negative 36 – 55 percent job approval rating.
Quinnipiac also asked about individual issues, such as handling the war in Ukraine, climate change, foreign policy, and the economy. Biden’s underwater on all of them:
Americans were asked about President Biden’s handling of…
– the response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: 43 percent approve, while 48 percent disapprove;
– climate change: 40 percent approve, while 49 percent disapprove;
– foreign policy: 37 percent approve, while 54 percent disapprove;
– the economy: 32 percent approve, while 62 percent disapprove.
That’s a bang-up job Biden’s doing there across the board. Once again, these numbers underscore that Democrats held off a massive red wave on Election Day not because of Biden’s popularity, but despite his shortcomings as President. On issue after issue, Biden’s getting poor marks.
The poll also asked about potential 2024 matchups and found that Biden is unpopular with the general population but a slight majority of Democrats would like to see him run again:
Americans 68 – 25 percent say they do not want to see Joe Biden run for president in 2024. This is similar to findings in a Quinnipiac University poll on August 31st.
Democrats 51 – 36 percent say they want to see Biden run in 2024 with 13 percent not offering an opinion.
For some more fun, Quinnipiac included some questions on the 2024 Republican primary as well and found a stalemate if GOP voters were given the option of Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. While Americans would prefer DeSantis to run versus Trump, Republicans, in general, would split between the two:
Americans 43 – 29 percent say they prefer Ron DeSantis win the Republican nomination for president in 2024 over Donald Trump, while 13 percent say they prefer someone else to win the GOP nomination and 15 percent did not offer an opinion.
Republicans are evenly split over who they prefer to win the Republican nomination with 44 percent preferring Trump, 44 percent preferring DeSantis and 11 percent not offering an opinion.
As far as candidate favorability goes, among the likeliest contenders, it’s DeSantis and Vice President Kamala Harris that have the most room for improving their standing as large numbers of Americans have no opinion of them:
– Joe Biden: 38 percent favorable, 52 percent unfavorable, 7 percent haven’t heard enough about him;
– Donald Trump: 37 percent favorable, 54 percent unfavorable, 5 percent haven’t heard enough about him;
– Ron DeSantis: 33 percent favorable, 29 percent unfavorable, 36 percent haven’t heard enough about him;
– Kamala Harris: 28 percent favorable, 48 percent unfavorable, 22 percent haven’t heard enough about her.
How can 22 percent not render an opinion about Kamala Harris? She ran for president, became Biden’s VP nominee, and then won in 2020 with Biden. She’s literally the sitting Vice President. As much as it seems like these people are ubiquitous to those of us who follow the news, there are still millions of people who don’t tune in much until it’s time to vote.
That’s your quick glance at the state of politics today as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow. Enjoy your turkey!
