President Biden’s approval rating climbed to its highest level in a year — after sinking to a historic low a month ago — but still less than half of Americans think he’s doing a good job, a new poll shows.
According to the latest Gallup poll released Thursday, 44% of US adults approve of the Democrat’s work, compared to 53% who do not have a favorable opinion of him.
The improved outlook for Biden comes on the heels of several major legislative wins for the president and his party, who are bracing for the midterm elections in which Republicans have a strong chance of taking control of the House, and possibly the Senate.
Historically, a president’s approval rating registering below 50% two months before the midterms usually spells trouble for his party, but the new poll numbers suggest that all may not be lost for Democrats.
Biden’s rating rose 6 percentage points since July, when his approval sank to the lowest level of any modem president at just 38%.
Pollsters attribute the boost in Biden’s job rating to independent voters, whose approval of the commander-in-chef inched up from 31% last month to 40%.
Democrats’ and Republicans’ ratings of Biden remained mostly flat over the same period, coming in at 81% and 4%, respectively, according to the survey.
Biden attended a rally on Thursday night organized by the Democratic National Committee in Maryland, where he ripped MAGA Republicans for their “semi-fascism” philosophy, while calling them “a threat to our very democracy.”
The latest Gallup findings are from Aug. 1 to 23 — a three-week period that was jam-packed with good news for the president, including the announcement that al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri had been killed, followed by the passage of Biden’s signature domestic spending plan tackling inflation, health care, climate and taxation.
This coincided with a steady decline in average gas prices, which finally dipped below $4 a gallon, a better-than-expected jobs report and a minor decline in the national inflation rate.
Biden received the highest marks from the 1,006 poll participants for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 58% approval rating, followed by his management of the environment at 50%.
Biden’s response to the war in Ukraine drew a 46% approval rating, while only 39% of Americans gave him a favorable rating for his handling of relations with Russia.
Even fewer respondents were impressed with the way the president has addressed such hot-button issues as immigration, gun control, abortion and the economy — with his economy rating being the lowest at just 31%.
Biden’s new and improved approval rating puts him in better standing in the August before midterm elections than five of his White House predecessors over the past 40 years, including Ronald Reagan in 1982, Bill Clinton in 1994, George W. Bush in 2006, Barack Obama in 2014 and Donald Trump in 2018.
Biden now has the same overall rating of 44% that Obama had in August 2010, before Republicans trounced Democrats in the midterm elections to win the House.
