As pivotal congressional elections loom, Biden’s approval rating sees an uptick

As the midterm elections draw near, President Joe Biden’s approval ratings have increased markedly among Americans following a string of legislative gains and falling gas prices, though a majority still disapprove of him, according to a new poll.

Forty-five percent of Americans approve of his job performance, as of the second week of September, up from 36% in July, according to the latest poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Favorability ticked up amongst both polled Democrats and Republicans, though the largest increases were seen among Democrats as 78% of them now approve of how the president is handling things, up from 65% in July. His approval among Republicans increased by 5% but remains distinctly underwater at 10%, according to the poll.

The poll surveyed 1,054 adults between Sept. 9 and Sept. 12, and it has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

An analysis of five separate polls over the course of his term by FiveThirtyEight found that Biden’s approval rating hovered in the low fifties from Inauguration Day onward, but dipped below 50% in August 2021 and never recovered. Historically, most modern presidents have seen their approval ratings diminish over time as their “honeymoon period” post-election comes to an end.

The percentage of Americans who say things in the country are heading in the right direction, a figure that had been trending down over the past year, ticked up in September. Twenty-seven percent of Americans now say things are heading in the right direction, which is up from 17% in July, according to the poll.

Widespread disapproval of Biden’s handling of the economy continues to dog the president despite moderate gains, according to the poll. Sixty-one percent of Americans said they disapprove of Biden’s economic leadership, including one-third of Democrats. Only 38% of Americans approve of the way he has handled the economy, up from 28% in June.

Twenty-nine percent of Americans say the national economy is good, up from 20% in June, while 71% say it is poor, down from 79% in June, according to the poll.

When asked how Biden is handling his job as president, the pandemic, climate change, abortion policy and the economy, survey respondents only gave the president over 50% approval when it came to his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the poll.

Despite intractably subpar ratings, this month’s substantial improvements may buoy congressional Democrats’ hopes heading into the midterms in November.

The party had been preparing for a midterm shellacking this summer, before becoming cautiously optimistic in recent weeks amid a spate of good news for Biden, including, most recently, brokering a tentative deal that would stave off a nationwide rail strike. The Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in June also appears to have provided a tailwind for Democrats as it has motivated three-quarters of them to turn out to vote in November, while only propelling half of Republicans, according to a June Marist poll.

Still, FiveThirtyEight projects that Republicans are favored to win the House majority, a scenario that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sees as a certainty, according to Axios. Meanwhile, Democrats are favored, by similar margins, to maintain their majority in the Senate.

If prevailing predictions for both chambers hold true, Americans will once again face a divided Congress next session.

This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 10:41 AM with the headline "As pivotal congressional elections loom, Biden’s approval rating sees an uptick."