President Joe Biden‘s approval ratings have dipped again even as he prepares a reelection bid, complicating his plans for 2024 and beyond.
Biden’s approval has dipped from 45% to 38%, per the latest Associated Press-NORC Center poll, dropping close to the all-time lows he set amid skyrocketing gas prices and high inflation last summer.
BIDEN TRIES TO HALT DEMOCRATS’ SLIDE WITH THE WORKING CLASS AHEAD OF 2024
While Biden’s approval ratings have been underwater for 18 months and have hovered in the low 40s since last year, critics charge that the latest dip is a sign he’s not fit for another run at the White House.
“Banking crisis, border crisis, inflation crisis, Ukraine crisis, debt crisis, fentanyl crisis, should I keep going?” tweeted firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). “Is he really running for president again?”
Biden’s approval rating is near his record low of 36%, which was set amid 9.1% inflation and $5-per-gallon gas last summer. Those factors have eased somewhat in the months since, suggesting other issues may be driving his numbers down.
Democratic strategist Brad Bannon acknowledged the low numbers could dog Biden.
“The easiest way to understand why Biden’s approval ratings are in the high 30s is to watch a half hour of the network news,” Bannon said. “There’s a story about a school shooting, tornadoes in the mid-South, the latest winter storm in California, followed by a story on Ukraine and then one about conflict in Washington. Most voters think the country is going to hell in a handbasket.”
That reality is reflected in the Associated Press poll as well, with just 21% of respondents saying the country is headed in the right direction, which is also the lowest the number has been since last summer.
Nonetheless, Bannon argues that Biden has plenty of time to recover ahead of November 2024, particularly if his opponent is former President Donald Trump.
“If your job approval rating is that low, it presents problems for Biden’s reelection campaign,” he said, “unless, of course, he’s running against Trump because however unpopular Biden will be at election time, Trump will be even more unpopular.”
Biden often invokes the mantra “Don’t compare me to the almighty; compare me to the alternative.” But if the alternative is Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Bannon argues that the president will need to get his approval ratings up into the mid-40s in order to win.
Not everyone agrees that factors like extreme weather, school shootings, or the war in Ukraine are behind Biden’s struggles. His approval rating on the economy was just 31% in the Associated Press-NORC poll, compared to 68% who disapprove.
“President Biden’s terrible approval numbers on the economy are due to his reckless policies that have caused historic inflation and a prolonged recessionary environment,” Job Creators Network CEO Alfredo Ortiz said. “Biden is desperately trying to boost his approval numbers by going on the road to support Inflation Reduction Act spending that supports green businesses. This gambit will backfire, as ordinary Americans know the free market, not the Biden administration, should pick the winners and losers in the economy.”
The president’s economic ratings have consistently lagged behind his overall approval.
To combat that, Biden has launched a blue-collar focused manufacturing tour to brag on job growth during his administration and try to shore up his status with working-class voters.
“We’re creating jobs. We’re exporting jobs no longer,” Biden said Tuesday. “American products are being made here. We’re growing the economy, and today, I announced that since I took office, we’ve attracted jobs, and we’ve attracted $435 billion in private investment in American manufacturing.”
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But as the latest polling shows, he’s got an uphill battle to fight.
Biden has not had a positive approval rating since August 2021, when the Afghanistan withdrawal occurred. He shares low approval ratings with Trump, his immediate predecessor, whose numbers likewise hovered in the high 30s and low 40s throughout his presidency.
