WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Less than six months before Election Day, Americans’ approval ratings of President Joe Biden and Congress remain well below average. Biden’s current 39% job rating is on the low end of the 37% to 44% readings he has received since September 2021, and it falls short of his 43% term average. Congress’ latest 13% approval marks its 16th consecutive rating under 21%, the average since January 2021.
Majorities of Americans continue to disapprove of the way Biden (56%) and Congress (81%) are handling their jobs.
These findings are from a May 1-23 Â鶹´«Ã½AV poll, which began one week after Biden signed a bipartisan bill providing aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan into law. During the poll’s field period, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene launched an unsuccessful bid to unseat U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, her party’s leader, due to his role in the passage of the aid package.
Biden’s lowest job approval rating was 37% on three occasions in 2023 (April, October and November), while approval of Congress reached its 9% record low in November 2013. Biden’s approval rating, though weak, is still well above the record low of 22% for Harry Truman in February 1952. Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush also had job approval ratings below 30% at some point in their presidencies.
Partisans Diverge on Biden Approval but Not Congress
Partisans continue to hold sharply different assessments of Biden, with 82% of Democrats and 2% of Republicans saying they approve of the job he is doing. Democrats’ approval of the president’s job performance was at least 90% until December 2021, during his first year in office, and has ranged from 75% to 87% since then. Meanwhile, no more than 12% of Republicans have approved of Biden’s job performance since he took office, with ratings in the single digits among the party since August 2021.
At 34%, independents’ approval falls closer to Republicans’ than Democrats’. Biden has not received majority-level approval from independents since June 2021.
Partisans are more closely aligned in their rating of the narrowly divided Congress, with Democrats holding a slim edge in the Senate and Republicans a slim majority in the House of Representatives. Just eight percentage points separate Democrats’ (17%) and Republicans’ (9%) approval ratings of Congress. Independents are midway between the two major party groups, at 13%. These readings have been relatively stable so far in 2024.
Implications
As he tries to win a second presidential term, Biden’s low approval rating makes him vulnerable. Americans’ poor opinion of Congress may also affect their willingness to vote for incumbents this year.
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