Poll: Biden's Approval Rating Drops as Confidence in His COVID Response Wavers
President Joe Biden’s honeymoon period is over, and new polling shows he’s lost major ground in recent weeks with regard to his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday concluded approval over Biden’s handling of the pandemic, especially as the delta variant of the virus grabs headlines, is shrinking.
“With the Delta variant spreading and coronavirus cases once again spiking in the U.S., President Joe Biden maintains a positive grade on his handling of the coronavirus response as Americans approve 53 – 40 percent,” the poll noted.
“However, this is a double digit drop from a Quinnipiac University poll in May when Americans approved 65 – 30 percent of Biden’s handling of the coronavirus response.”
The poll asked: “Do you approve or disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling the response to the coronavirus?”
The results showed that since May, Biden’s numbers have been going backward. While he initially enjoyed the support of 65 percent of respondents as reported by Quinnipiac, he’s lost ground by double digits.
Fifty-three percent of the survey’s respondents in the poll released Wednesday said they approved of Biden’s handling of the pandemic, while 40 percent outright disapproved. An additional seven percent had no answer for the question.
But the 12-point drop since the spring shows mixed messaging about masks, a reported rise in cases, and other issues have likely chipped away at the support the mainstream pollster said Biden enjoyed not long ago.
Naturally, one’s opinion on Biden’s handling of the coronavirus response was partisan. Republicans disapproved of Biden on the issue by a margin of 76 percent to 14 percent, with 10 percent of GOP respondents not answering the question.
Only seven percent of Democrats disapproved of Biden’s handling of COVID, while 92 percent approved and only 1 percent refused to answer the question.
Fifty-four percent of independent voters said they approved of Biden on COVID, while 39 percent disapproved. Seven percent of unaffiliated voters did not answer one way or the other.
Women were more likely to support Biden on the issue than men. Fifty-nine percent of women said they supported the president on COVID while only 46 percent of men said they approved.
The poll reported young voters aged 18-34 and older voters aged 64 and up were more likely to support Biden on the pandemic. Meanwhile, minority voters were more likely to support him on the issue than white voters.
Seventy-six percent of black respondents said they approved of Biden on his handling of COVID, while 51 percent of Hispanics answered the same way. Fifty percent of white respondents said they approved of Biden on the issue.
Americans living in the south, and especially in rural America, were less likely to support Biden on the pandemic than Americans from other regions.
“[Biden] has been leading the charge in the battle to beat back COVID, so why is President Biden losing ground with Americans? As the unvaccinated fall victim to the Delta variant, the ‘turning the corner’ optimism from the White House may be starting to ring premature,” Quinnipiac pollster Tim Malloy noted.
The Quinnipiac University poll surveyed 1,290 U.S. adults nationwide via telephone from July 27 – Aug. 2. The poll reported a margin of error of +/- 2.7 points.
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