President Joe Biden’s job approval rating stayed at 42% in a new poll by NBC News.
Evan Vucci/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
text size
Americans remain unhappy, with three-quarters of registered voters polled by NBC News saying the county is going in the wrong direction and 58% saying its best years are behind it.
But the economy is not voters’ top concern, the poll says. “Threats to democracy” have replaced “cost of living” and “jobs and the economy” as the country’s top issues.
The poll found President Joe Biden’s approval rating at 42%, where it was in May.
Biden signed the climate change and health care bill into law last week, capping a string of legislative victories for Democrats as the fall midterm elections neared. Business news has given Biden a boost, from the July jobs report showing 528,000 jobs were added this month to falling prices at the pump in recent weeks.
NBC News poll found 40% of voters agree with how Biden is handling the economy, up 7 points since May.
“Politically, the news isn’t all bad for Joe Biden and the Democrats,” said Hart Research Associates Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt, who conducted the poll with Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies. “Heading into Labor Day, the political dynamic could be worse [for Democrats]but they also need to get a lot better and faster,” he said.
Of those polled, 47% of voters want Republicans to take control of Congress in the November midterm elections, while 45% want Democrats to take control.
NBC News quoted McInturff as saying the president’s job evaluation was a challenge for the election. “America sings the blues, and that’s bad news for the blue team in November,” he said.
In the poll, 21% of voters said “threats to democracy” was the most important issue, while 16% named “cost of living” and 14% named “jobs and the economy”. In a May poll by NBC, 22% of voters named the cost of living as the most important issue, followed by jobs and the economy (18%) and voting rights and electoral integrity (12%).
A separate question in the August poll found that 58% of voters disapproved of the Supreme Court’s decision ending the Roe v. Wade is lifted while 38% agree.
It also found that 57% of registered voters say investigations into alleged wrongdoing by former President Donald Trump should continue because he needs to be held accountable, while 40% say they should be dropped because they are political are motivated and divisive.
Of those who want the investigation to continue, 92% are Democratic voters, 61% are Independent and 21% are Republican voters.
After the House committee investigating the attack held televised hearings, 50% of voters say Trump is solely or primarily responsible for the Jan. 6 riot in the US Capitol, a rise of 5 points since May NBC poll means. And 49% say Trump is partially or not at all responsible for January 6, down 6 points from May.
Voters were polled Aug. 12-16 during and after some pro-Trump headlines, NBC News noted: The FBI searched Trump’s Florida home, attorney and supporter Rudy Giuliani revealed he was a “target” in an investigation into alleged vote-interference in Georgia and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pleaded guilty to tax fraud.
Write to Janet H. Cho at [email protected]
Comments are closed.