By Dave Andrusko
All this week and, for that matter, the last few weeks, weāve been following the declineāprecipitous decline in some cases āin public support for pro-abortion President Joe Biden. Overall his approval numbers hover around 40% with Gallupās Megans Brenan writing that āPresident Joe Bidenās job approval rating remains at 37%, tying his personal low, with disapproval at 59%.ā
She adds āApproval ratings of the presidentās handling of healthcare (40%) and the situation in Ukraine (38%) are similar to his overall rating, while fewer, 32% each, approve of his handling of the economy, foreign affairs, and the situation between the Israelis and Palestinians.ā
ButĀ Leah Askarinam,Ā Holly Fuong, andĀ Mary RadcliffeĀ have even gloomier news: āHis numbers among Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans have reached a new low.ā
They start their analysis with this insight:
President Joe Biden is struggling in the polls one year before voters will decide whether to give him a second term in the Oval Office. And it’s the Americans who were most supportive of him at the beginning of his term that have turned on the president the most.
Their narrative, broadly speaking, is of a President whose approval was high during the āhoneymoon periodā (that virtually all presidents not named Donald Trump experience] followed by a large drop, followed by a small recovery, ended up with the conclusion that āby this summer, it had started to sag again.ā
But Askarinam, Fuong, and Radcliffe ask the question āwith which demographic groups is Biden losing the most support?ā Their conclusion?
We looked at the crosstabs of his approval polls to find out. Biden’s approval rating has consistently been highest among Black Americans and lowest among white Americans. But while white Americans have been lukewarm about Biden for a majority of his administration, the president is losing support at a faster clip among people of color. That’s consistent with what other sources have found: The latest New York Times/Siena College polling found signs that Biden was losing ground among Black voters. And Democrats have been warning about signs of Latino voters turning toward the GOP for years.
Among Black American, Biden started his presidency with an 86 percent average approval rating, āhigher than any other racial group.ā It dropped as low as 63 percent in July 2022 āa whopping decline of 23 percentage pointāand then rallied a bit. āBut since early 2023, it has dropped again to 60 percent, the lowest his approval rating has ever been among Black Americans during his presidency.ā
Among Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders and Hispanics/Latinos Bidenās approval numbers āfollowed the same general trajectory as his approval rating among Black voters, although he started from a lower peak.ā
āAmong Hispanics and Latinos, Biden entered the White House with an approval rating of over 70 percent. That number declined through the rest of 2021 and through early summer of 2022, when it plateaued in the mid-40s, but it began declining again in spring 2023. Today, Biden’s approval rating among Hispanics and Latinos remains on the decline, inching closer and closer to 40 percent, which would be an all-time low.
Of course, the usual caveat must be acknowledged. We are still eleven months away from the 2024 election. Things could, of course, change but Father Time always eventually wins out.
