OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
President Joe Biden’s polling numbers have continued to take a hit throughout the year as more Americans struggle economically and as he presides over crises along the U.S.-Mexico border and around the world.
But another factor has emerged that is likely to drag down Biden’s approval rating: his vice president.
According to the latest NBC News survey, Biden is losing to former President Donald Trump for the first time in his presidency, while Harris’s approval rating sank below 30 percent.
Just 40 percent of respondents approve of the job Biden is doing, while just 29 percent approve of Harris, making her the least-popular vice president in the modern era.
“Additionally, when asked whether they would vote for a Republican candidate or Biden in the 2024 election, the current president lags at 37% to 48%,” Just the News reported, citing the survey. “When specifically asked about whether they would vote for Trump or Biden, 46% of voters said Trump while 44% said Biden, per the poll.”
NBC political correspondent Steve Kornacki cited the shocking survey during a segment on Sunday with the network.
He noted that while Biden has long held a “likeability” advantage over Trump, the latest survey also shows the two men tied in that category.
“The gap is gone. Thirty-six percent positive on both and actually Biden, one point more negative than Trump. That’s been a significant advantage for Biden. Our poll says that advantage, at least for now, may be gone,” Kornacki noted.
In addition, the political correspondent said that, according to the survey, just 40 percent of respondents gave Biden positive job approval, which is also the lowest number in the span of the current president’s term.
And just 30 percent of self-identifying Independents give Biden positive job approval ratings.
“If you take a look here by party, I think it’s significant for two reasons: one, Independents, obviously, more than two to one disapprove. You don’t want to be there as an incumbent president. But I think equally significant, no surprise, 7% of Republicans approve of Joe Biden, job performance, but three times as many Democrats, 21%, that’s more than one in five, say they disapprove. You need much more unified support in your own party if you’re going to have a successful reelection campaign,” Kornacki said.
While younger voters tend to skew more liberal, the latest NBC poll found that voters ages 18-24 were actually leaning toward Trump, 46-42 percent.
“The youngest voters in the 2020 election were Biden +28,” Kornacki said. “This could be a massive sea change.”
Other recent surveys show Trump moving past Biden in a basket of key swing states.
According to a new PRRI Research/Ipsos survey, Biden edged Trump in a national two-person race, 48–46 percent, with 6 percent saying they did not prefer either candidate, according to Breitbart News last month.
“However, Trump has a clear advantage over Biden in key swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, leading Biden by a difference of six points—49 percent to the 80-year-old’s 43 percent,” the outlet added, citing the survey’s results.
Previous surveys have also shown Trump leading Biden in the critical swing states.
Voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin were polled by Bloomberg/Morning Consult, and their results showed that Trump was ahead of Biden by 4 percentage points due to widespread disapproval of the vice president’s handling of the economy.
Trump has a 5-point lead over Biden in Georgia, a 4-point lead over Biden in Arizona, a 2-point lead in Wisconsin, a 1-point lead in Wisconsin, and a 1-point lead in Pennsylvania. According to the survey, Biden is ahead of Trump by three points in Nevada, and the two candidates are neck and neck in Michigan.
In the seven swing states, 49% of voters said Bidenomics was bad for the economy. This is the term the White House has used to describe Vice President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
In those seven states, 46% of undecided voters think Bidenomics is bad for the economy, while 41% either don’t know enough about it or have no opinion.
