Americans are divided on many issues, as demonstrated by the current state of the 2024 election polling. The presidential race? Locked up tight. Control of Congress? Too close to predict. The most important issue facing our nation? Pollsters get lots of differing responses.
But standing out as the one of the few things that unites a majority of Americans voters, according to polling, is a long-running disapproval of the job done by President Joe Biden.
“Over half of likely voters (53%) disapprove of the job Joe Biden is doing as president, while 41% approve,” Emerson College found in the October national survey.
It’s not just Emerson though. In October, polls conducted by Atlas Intel, the New York Times/Siena, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, the Economist/YouGov, Forbes, ABC/Ipsos, and USA Today/Suffolk all found Biden underwater on favorability, as they have for years.
Biden, who stepped away from the presidential race in July after a disastrous early summer debate performance, started off his administration with positive approval numbers — 55% vs. 36%. That lasted until about midsummer in 2021, when post-COVID-era inflation started to exact a noticeable financial toll on U.S. households.
“A national Emerson College Poll finds President Joe Biden with a split job approval among registered voters: 47% disapprove and 46% approve of the job he is doing as President,” Emerson pollsters found in September of 2021, noting that just the prior February “his approval was at 49% approve and 39% disapprove.”
“The November Emerson College national poll finds President Joe Biden at 50% disapproval and a 41% approval. Biden’s approval is down five points,” they found a month later.
Biden’s numbers never recovered from inflation, despite a booming stock market, and not even after announcing his decision to step aside from the election and clear the way for Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden’s fourth year approval rating is also lower than that of his most recent predecessors.
According to RealClearPolling, at this point in his presidency, former President Donald Trump stood at 44.4% approval vs. 53.1% disapproval, a net -8.7% rating. At the end of his second term, in 2016, then-President Barack Obama stood at 49.8% approve to 46.5% disapprove, for a net +3.3%.
Trump’s current approval rating, after nearly three full years of campaigning for the White House, stands at a net -2%, while Harris stands even.
“Half of voters (50%) have a favorable view of Harris and half have an unfavorable view of the Vice President. Forty-nine percent have a favorable view of Trump, while 51% have an unfavorable view of the former president,” Emerson pollsters found.
The only thing voters seem to agree on more than their dislike of Biden may be their distaste with the direction of the country.
According to historic polling data, American voters haven’t felt positive about the direction of the country at any point over the last four presidential terms.
Voters were split 50-50 heading into the summer of 2009 after the start of the Obama Administration, and came within five points of even at the start of Biden’s term, but otherwise over the last decade-and-a-half the majority of voters have disapproved of the direction of the country.
