Seeking a political boost as he heads into the 2024 election season, President Joe Biden has spent the past few weeks highlighting the nation’s low unemployment, continued GDP growth and declining inflation rate, all of which he credits to the economic policies put into place under his watch. His sales pitch, however, doesn’t seem to be getting through to most American voters. Just 36% of respondents in a new poll said they approve of Biden’s handling of the economy — an even worse outcome than the 42% expressing approval for his performance overall.
The results of the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll vary sharply by party. While a majority of Democrats (65%) expressed support for Biden’s economic policies, only 8% of Republicans did the same.
Overall, most Americans seem to share a fairly pessimistic outlook on the economy. Just 34% of respondents said the economy is “good.” That number includes a scant majority (52%) of Democrats and only 15% of Republicans.
“Despite positive indicators the economy is improving, Americans appear to be hesitant to credit the president,” The Hill’s Lauren Sforza wrote Thursday.
The poll, conducted August 10-14 with 1,165 adults, has other bad news for the president. A majority of respondents said they had “hardly any confidence” or “only some confidence” in Biden’s ability to handle the basic duties of his office, including managing the White House (45% had hardly any confidence, 31% had only some confidence), handling a crisis (46%, 32%) or reducing corruption in Washington (58%, 30%).
The sour mood extends to his own party. A majority of Democrats (55%) said they don’t want to see Biden run again in 2024. Younger Democrats were even more negative, with 66% saying they would like to see a different candidate next year. The silver lining for Biden is that a solid majority of Democrats (82%) said they would get behind him if he is the party’s presidential candidate, as expected. Overall, though, just 24% of Americans want to see Biden run again.
The bottom line: Biden’s inability to convince most Americans that his economic policies are making their lives better suggests he could be in for a tough fight in 2024 – even if his opponent is under a cloud of his own. “I think it’s going to be a miserable election cycle,” one poll respondent said in a follow-up interview. “We’re going to see a lot of the same stuff that we saw in 2020.”
