There’s been a lot of attention paid to President Joe Biden’s falling job approval rating. And it is indeed going down, down, down. But along with confidence in the president, the public is also losing faith in the Democratic Party’s ability to handle the issues that most concern voters today. It’s been a long fall for both Biden and his party since they narrowly won control in Washington one year ago this week.
A new NBC News poll has Biden’s job approval rating at 42% among all adults, with a disapproval rating of 54%. That’s 12 points underwater, and it is roughly in line with a number of other recent surveys.
On one of the most important issues to voters at this moment – the economy – Biden is in a terrible position. Forty percent of those surveyed approve of his handling of the economy, while 57% disapprove. On his handling of the COVID pandemic, 47% disapprove, while a small majority, 51%, still approve of Biden’s work. But that number is down from 69% approv al in April. Other polls show Biden underwater in the public’s view of his handling of national security, the border and other issues.
But Biden’s troubles are just part of the Democratic Party’s larger problem. The NBC poll is devastating for Democrats trying to convince voters they should be reelected in next year’s midterms. The pollsters listed a number of issues and asked voters “which party do you think would do a better job – the Democratic Party, or the Republican Party?”
Start with the economy. Fortyfive percent said the GOP would do a better job, while 27% said the Democrats would – an 18-point advantage for Republicans. Then go to controlling inflation, a huge and growing concern among all voters. Respondents gave Republicans a 24-point advantage. On national security, respondents gave the GOP a 21-point advantage. On dealing with border security, the GOP advantage was 27 points. On dealing with crime, it was 22 points. On dealing with immigration, it was 9 points, when just last year Democrats had a 6-point advantage. And on the general question of “being effective and getting things done,” voters gave Republicans a 13-point advantage.
All in all, it was a huge vote of confidence in Republicans, indicating higher voter trust.
Of course, Democrats still had some strengths. On dealing with COVID, they had a 12-point advantage – down from 17 points last year. On education, they had a 10-point advantage, the same advantage they had on the issue of abortion. On voting rights, the Democratic advantage was 5 points, and on election security it was one point. The only really huge Democratic advantage was on the issue of climate change, where Democrats held a 24-point lead. Climate change, which is not one of the voting public’s top concerns, was the only issue on which the Democratic lead was actually growing. On everything else, it was shrinking.