The Democrats are in trouble heading into this year’s midterm elections, and President Joe Biden appears to be a large part of the reason why.
According to the Washington Examiner, a new poll has found that Biden’s handling of the U.S. economy, among other things, is “dragging down” the Democrats’ midterm hopes.
The poll comes from ABC News and the Washington Post. It was a telephone/cellphone survey conducted between February 20 and February 24, 2022. 1,011 adults participated.
On the U.S. economy
One of the poll’s worst findings for Biden and the Democrats is with regard to the U.S. economy. A whopping 75% of Americans expressed their belief that the U.S. economy is in bad shape. And, by an overwhelming 3 to 1 margin, participants said that the economy has gotten worse since Biden took over.
The pollster noted: “That ‘gotten worse’ number is more than double what it was when measured during Trump’s presidency in 2019 (22 percent) and 11 points higher than under Obama in 2012.”
Also significant is that 35%, a plurality, said that they are worse off economically under Biden. The pollster explained, “a negative score on this measure has reliably indicated political trouble since Ronald Reagan popularized the concept in his successful 1980 presidential campaign.”
The forty-year-high in inflation, according to the pollster, “is a singular irritant.” 59% indicated on the poll that this inflation has caused hardship for their household, including 30 percent who said that it has caused serious hardship.
What all of this adds up to is only a 37% approval rating for Biden with regard to the U.S. economy. And, what’s more is that 54%, a comfortable majority of participants, indicated that they would trust the Republicans to run the economy over Biden and the Democrats.
Trouble ahead for the left
In this most recent poll, the economy is the worst issue for the Biden and the Democrats. But, it is not the only bad issue for them. Biden and the Democrats have also lost support for their response to the coronavirus pandemic, and voters are not happy with Biden’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
There is not much, in fact, that is positive for Biden and the Democrats in the poll, which helps to explain why Biden’s overall approval reached a new low of only 37%. Perhaps, even more embarrassing for Biden, though, is that 59% expressed their belief that he is not a strong leader, and 54% said that he is not mentally sharp enough to be president.
The poll also found that Republicans have a ten percentage point lead over the Democrats in this year’s race for Congress.
Overall, 2022 is looking fairly bleak for Biden and the Democrats, and, based on the way things are going, there are no signs that this is going to change any time soon.
