A new poll came out on ABC and The Washington Post this weekend, and it’s bringing bad news for the Democrats.
51 percent of registered would have voted Republican if they were voting this month. Only 41 percent would have voted Democrat. That ten-point margin is the Republicans’ largest advantage since the creation of the ABC poll in 1981.
Plus, Biden’s approval rating fell among all demographics. His approval rating remained stable only among Republicans, rural Americans, and self-identified conservatives… all of whom disliked him already.
The Democrats’ decline in popularity has been shallow but widespread. That kind of damage caused the Democrats to lose in Virginia.
According to ABC’s past polls, Americans first soured on Biden this summer. ABC blamed both inflation the Delta surge for Biden’s unpopularity. In reality, the polling data look more complicated.
About 50 percent (or more) of respondents have always approved of Biden’s performance on the pandemic. Additionally, Biden has continued to poll underwater even after Delta’s disappearance.
For some reason, the poll didn’t ask about Afghanistan, a PR disaster for Biden.
Respondents rated Democrat policies more favorably the Democrat politicians. 63 percent of respondents supported the newly passed infrastructure bill, and 58 percent supported the social spending bill under debate in Congress.
However, the respondents gave Biden hardly any credit for these new policies. Only 31 percent viewed Biden as “keeping most of his major campaign promises, and only 35 percent considered him to have “accomplished much overall.” On top of that, 59 percent worried about Biden’s role in increasing the size of the federal government, compared to 53 percent in March.
59 percent of registered voters wanted to elect a fresh face to the House. That number matches past polls. However, this time, those voters are favoring Republicans by 20 points.
Still, the poll gave conservatives some bad news.
58 percent of respondents saw the Republican Party as out of touch, only four points ahead of the Democratic Party.
Plus, the respondents may have disapproved of Biden’s economic action, but they held even more negative views of the economy under former President Donald Trump. Even during the economic boom of September 2017, 61 percent of respondents disapproved of Trump’s economic performance, five points worse than Biden’s.
The new poll was taken by phone — both landline and cell — between Nov. 7 and 10. Pollsters randomly selected 1,001 adults, including 882 registered voters.
The pollsters controlled for regional discrepancies in landline use, and they estimated the margin of error of 3.5 percent.
In other words, Americans have left the Democrats very deep underwater.
The Horn editorial team