President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are continuing to suffer heavily in the polls following a week in which their party was rocked by a number of elections.
According to a USA Today-Suffolk University poll, Biden's approval rating is currently at 38 percent, lower than another Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll taken since he took office and only just hovering above the president's all-time lows of 37 percent which were recorded by two other surveys in mid-October.
Biden's approval rating is even suffering with those who voted for him in 2020. According to the results, 46 percent say Biden has done a worse job as president than they expected, including 16 percent of those who voted for him.
Neatly two-thirds of all Americans say they do not want him to run again in 2024, including more than a quarter (28 percent) of Democrats.
The survey results look even worse for Harris, who is expected to be Biden's heir apparent if he decides not to run again in 2024. The survey shows that Harris' approval rating currently stands at 28 percent, with more than half of registered voters (51 percent) saying they disapprove of the job she is doing.
The survey was conducted in the days after the November 2 elections across the country, which saw Glenn Youngkin beat Terry McAuliffe in the gubernatorial race in Virginia and political novice Edward Durr cause a major upset by beating Democratic state Senator Stephen Sweeney in New Jersey's 3rd Legislative District. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy also only just avoided defeat to Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli.
The Election Day results and the Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll are the latest troubling indicator for the Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterms, as well as the 2024 presidential election. The GOP only needs to flip five seats in the House and one in the Senate in order to regain control of Congress.
Those taking part in the survey said if the midterms were happening today, they would back the Republican congressional candidate over the Democratic one by 46 percent to 38 percent.
"The poll is a historic low point for the Biden administration, no matter how you look at it," David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, said in a USA Today article about the results.
"This poll also shows that the generic congressional ballot test of voters has flipped to Republicans, which is unusual because this indicator often gives Democrats the edge.
"The generic congressional ballot test is an important barometer of voting behavior because it removes individual dynamics of each race and focuses on how voters are leaning between the two parties. In the Suffolk/USA TODAY poll, this indicator not only tilted to Republicans, but it also completely flipped the other way."
The White House has been contacted for comment.
The Suffolk University/USA Today poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters by landline and cellphone between November 3 and 5. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
