President Joe Biden has never had an especially high approval rating, but in his first months in office he managed to stay around 50% thanks to the enthusiasm of Democrats who were just happy to see Donald Trump out of the White House. Now that forgiving early period has passed, and approval ratings for the president are at their lowest with no sign of a recovery coming any time soon. It gets even worse for Biden when demographic data is considered.
President’s approval ratings hit an abysmal low
Biden relied on younger voters to win the 2020 election; Millennial and Generation Z voters are the most liberal age groups in the country and a majority of them supported Biden, though without much enthusiasm.
Gallup polling data shows that Biden’s approval ratings among these age groups stayed comfortably above 50% through the early months of 2021 before entering into a precipitous decline.
This is the main factor behind the plummeting approval rating, which now sits at only 33% according to the latest polling. This is a double digit loss from last April.
Older generations are now more likely to approve of Biden than younger voters, though even amongst the older age groups he is well below 50%.
The only good news for Biden is that older voters have largely not changed their opinions of him from 2021; those who oppose him now are those who opposed him when he took office for the most part.
Registered Republicans have always had an overwhelmingly negative view of Biden and his decaying approval rating now has very little to do with those who voted against him in 2020.
Younger voters turning against Biden
Gen Z and millennial voters may not be turning against Biden because of a surge in conservatism, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Republicans can’t capitalize on their antipathy for the president and his party.
Candidates on the right have an opportunity to aggressively campaign for younger voters who dislike the current state of the country.
France’s Marine Le Pen has demonstrated the effectiveness of campaigning as a right-wing candidate who listens to the concerns of the younger generations and lower-income voters.
Economic factors are driving much of the anti-Biden surge, and there is undoubtedly a great deal of overlap between the financially struggling and the young Americans who are disillusioned with Democratic leadership.
Hispanics have continued to trend away from Democrats according to Biden’s approval ratings and even black voters have lost enthusiasm for Biden.
All of this has created a climate that is ideal for Republican candidates who can present themselves as real alternatives to the powers that be in Washington.