OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Approval ratings for both President Biden and Vice President Harris continue to tank, as evidenced by a shocking new survey that is bad news for both.
According to a survey from I&I/TIPP, just 22 percent of respondents said they want Biden to run again in 2024, but just 12 percent said they want to see Harris on the ticket. However, as the Boston Herald reports, there is a bright spot in that “no favorite has emerged among the large field of potential challengers to run against Biden in the 2024 primaries.”
“It’s undeniable. Joe Biden is hurting in the polls right now and it’s due to a number of factors,” Erin O’Brien, associate professor of political science at UMass Boston, told the Herald, which added:
Those factors, she said, include the nagging pandemic, soaring inflation, lingering doubts about Biden’s foreign policy chops after the botched pullout from Kabul and lingering legislation. …
This comes as Democrats hold a slim majority in the House, where the split is 221-213, and in the Senate, at 50-50, but with Harris as the tiebreaker.
Support for former President Donald Trump remains strong among those loyal to him, so that also could be reflected in the polling that shows Biden needs to rebound or it will be too late to get much done in the second half of his tenure.
What’s more, because of the poor numbers for both Biden and Harris, neither will be of much help, politically, to Democrats who may be in swing districts and will be struggling to hold onto their seats during next year’s midterms.
A separate survey published by The Wall Street Journal also found dismal numbers for Biden.
“The survey reveals a set of danger signs for the Democratic Party as it prepares to defend narrow majorities in the House and Senate. Voters by a large margin see economic and fiscal issues, including inflation, as the top priorities for Washington, and they view the GOP as better able to handle them,” the paper reported.
“More voters say they would back a Republican than a Democrat for Congress, 44% to 41%, if the election were held today, a lead that is within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points,” the WSJ continued. “Some 41% approve of Mr. Biden’s job performance, with 57% disapproving, suggesting that the president’s power to boost support for other Democrats, as of now, is limited.”
Democrat John Anzalone, the lead pollster for Biden’s 2020 campaign, said it’s not time just yet to panic.
“If it was Labor Day of 2022 with these numbers, then it’s a red warning light,’’ he told the WSJ. “At this point in time, it’s really difficult. But guess what: You’ve got an entire year, and Democrats have tools in the tool kit to reverse the situation.”
Still, he noted that the survey indicates Biden has failed to inspire the country to unite behind him — or to unite at all, which was a central theme of his campaign.
“There’s now a difference between candidate Joe Biden and perceptions of what he was going to do, and President Joe Biden,” Republican Tony Fabrizio, who led former President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign polling, said. “He was going to beat Covid. We didn’t beat Covid, obviously. He was going to bring the country together, and obviously, the country isn’t together.…And people have economic concerns.”
Biden has said he is running for reelection in 2024 but others have speculated that at 82 he won’t. But with Harris’ even worse polling, it’s not at all clear she would automatically become the Democratic nominee.
A project from The Los Angeles Times that tracks opinion polls from around the nation showed that she is less popular than President Biden and many of her own predecessors.
“As of Oct. 26, 42% of registered voters had a favorable opinion of Harris and 51% had an unfavorable opinion — a net rating of -9 percentage points, according to a Times average,” The Times said in October.
