Although the election was contested by more than 80 million Americans, President Biden won support from Silicon Valley, corporate media, and entertainment industries.
However, Democrats on Capitol Hill are becoming more concerned that President Joe Biden’s declining favorability ratings could lead to a bloodbath at 2022’s ballot box after only 10 months.
Numerous members acknowledged to Politico that poll results underscored a shifting tide in American politics and that the party must respond quickly. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Senate Majority Whip, called the president’s poll numbers “scary.”
Why did Biden’s numbers plummet so quickly?
- Biden’s poor handling COVID-19, and subsequent versions like Omicron, by Biden
- Continued botched withdrawal form Afghanistan
- An increase in and encouragement of crisis at the southern border
- Skyrocketing crime, inflation
- Struggling economy
- Supply Chain Bottlenecked
- ETC.
The initial reaction, which was to blame former President Donald J. Trump for his actions, is now overshadowed by voters who place the blame on Biden and the Democratic Party.
Biden’s inner circle attempts to ignore the shift in public sentiment by promoting hollow platitudes through Jenn Paaki’s daily briefing. Someone tweets mistruths to Twitter for an aging Joe. Some aides know that not everyone feels the same way. Many of their party members are becoming increasingly anxious about next year’s midterms, and they blame Biden’s poor polling.
Politico reported Monday that most Democrats are concerned that Biden’s declining polling numbers, with approval hovering in low 40s, will lead to a “thrashing at the ballot box” come the midterms unless he pulls back from his slide.
The outlet stated that even the party’s polling shows Biden is underwater. According to Politico, three members said that a poll by House Democrats’ campaign arm earlier in the month found that 52% of voters disapproved of his job and that the president is losing battleground districts throughout the country.
Others, such as Sen. Bob Casey (D.Pa.) or Sen. Chris Murphy(D-Conn.), choose to put a positive spin upon the problem. According to them, they believe things will improve once the party passes marquee legislation and goes back to campaigning.
“We’re in a difficult period now. One of the challenges we have is, we’ve been legislating this year, as he has,” Casey argued. “While you’re legislating, you’re not communicating.”
“Theoretically we could finish a historic year of legislating for the middle class in the next month and spend all of our next year talking about what we did,” Murphy added.
Others, like Rep. Jared Golden (D.Maine) or Rep. Susan Wild(D.Pa.), don’t think the solution is so simple. They seem content to put some distance between them and the president.
“I really don’t care at all [about the president’s numbers], I’ve got my own approach to doing things,” Golden told Politico, adding that he outran Biden in Trump country. “What I know about his approval ratings right now versus my own is that I’m outpacing him by about 30 points.”
“I care more about my own numbers,” Wild added, noting, “I honestly believe that in my district, and in many districts, that it’s a mistake to try to tie your election or reelection to any president.”
