How Joe Biden's Approval Rating Has Changed After Midterms Triumph

While the Democrats performed strongly in last week's midterm elections, recent polling shows that President Joe Biden still remains unpopular with the American public.

The elections were a major disappointment for the Republicans, with the "red wave" many had been anticipating failing to materialize, allowing the Democrats to maintain control of the Senate.

Republicans had been hoping to capitalize on Biden's unpopularity, with the president last recording a positive approval rating in August 2021, according to election analysis website FiveThirtyEight.

Following the vote, a Big Village survey, conducted on November 9th and 10th, gave the president a net approval rating of minus 10.5.

The survey of 1,006 U.S. adults, weighted by gender, race, education and age, found just 41.4 percent of Americans approve of Biden's performance, while 51.9 percent disapproved and the remainder said they didn't know.

President Joe Biden at G20 Bali meeting
President Joe Biden attends the global meeting of G20 leaders on November 15, 2022 in Nusa Dua, Indonesia. Biden remains unpopular with the U.S. public according to two recent polls. Leon Neal/GETTY

A separate poll, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research for Rasmussen Reports, gave Biden an approval rating of minus eight.

The poll of 1,500 "likely voters" carried out from November 9-13 produced an even starker result when only those who "strongly approve" and "strongly disapprove" of Biden's performance were measured.

Of the total respondents, 45 percent strongly disapproved of Biden's record, versus 23 percent who strongly approved, producing a net strong approval rating of minus 22.

Biden is more unpopular than both Donald Trump and Barack Obama were at this stage of their presidencies, according to FiveThirtyEight.

After 664 days in office, the site gave Biden an average approval rating of minus 11.5, versus minus 10.6 and minus 3.4 for Trump and Obama, after the same number of days in the White House.

The news isn't all bad for the Democrats, as the party got some significant wins in last week's elections.

The midterms saw Democratic candidate John Fetterman flip a Pennsylvania Senate seat, allowing the Democrats to keep the majority in the Senate via Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote, even before the Georgia runoff election between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.

On Monday, Democrat Katie Hobbs was declared the winner in the Arizona governor's race, defeating Republican Kari Lake, a Trump-endorsed 2020 election denier.

The Associated Press called the race on Monday night, with Hobbs leading by 20,000 votes and 98 percent of ballots counted.

Responding to the news on his Truth Social website, Trump claimed the election had been stolen, without providing any solid evidence.

"Wow! They just took the election away from Kari Lake," Trump posted. "It's really bad out there!"

Earlier Trump had posted: "I assume everyone is watching Arizona as the great Kari Lake's easy election win is slowly, yet systematically, being drained away from her, and from the American people."

Reacting to her victory, Hobbs tweeted: "Democracy is worth the wait. Thank you, Arizona. I am so honored and so proud to be your next Governor."

Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

About the writer


James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is covering U.S. politics and world ... Read more

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