Receives win with infrastructure bill
A recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll found that President Joe Biden’s support has cratered among the independent voters who delivered his margin of victory over President Donald Trump one year ago.
Biden and his party are poised for a rebound, advocates argue, after the House passed a $1.2 trillion “hard” infrastructure bill, sending the measure to Biden’s desk for his signature.
The survey may illuminate the size of the hole Democrats need to dig out of as they look toward the elections in one year – on Nov. 8, 2022 – that will determine control of Congress and shape the second two years of Biden’s term.
At the moment, however, views of the president have soured.
Among the findings:
Nearly half of those surveyed (46 percent) say Biden has done a worse job as president than they expected, including 16 percent of those who voted for him. Independents, by 7-1 (44 percent-6 percent), say he’s done worse, not better, than they expected.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans, 64 percent, say they don’t want Biden to run for a second term in 2024. That includes 28 percent of Democrats. Opposition to Trump running for another term in 2024 stands at 58 percent, including 24 percent of Republicans.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ approval rating is 28 percent—even worse than Biden’s. The poll shows that 51 percent disapprove of the job she’s doing. One in 5 (21 percent) are undecided.
Americans overwhelmingly support the infrastructure bill Biden is about to sign, but they are split on the more expensive and further-reaching “Build Back Better” act being debated in Congress. Only 1 in 4 say the bill’s provisions would help them and their families.
If the election were today, those surveyed say, they would vote for their Republican congressional candidate over the Democratic one by 46 percent-38 percent, an advantage that would bode well for GOP hopes of gaining a majority in the House and the Senate. In a president’s first midterm election, his party usually loses ground, and this time the GOP needs to flip just five seats in the House and one in the Senate to claim control.
The poll of 1,000 registered voters, taken by landline and cellphone, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
