Biden’s Approval Rating Is on the Rise

President Joe Biden’s job approval rating has reached its highest point in months, according to a new Morning Consult/Politico survey, amid falling gas prices and after the enactment of the last major piece of his legislative agenda before the midterm elections.

Biden’s job approval rating is improving

• According to the Aug. 19-21 survey, 43% of voters approve of Biden’s job performance, up 6 percentage points from its record low of 37% a month ago., and the highest it’s been since May. A majority of voters (55%) still disapprove of Biden, but that’s down from a 59% high.
• Among Democrats, Biden’s approval rating has improved from 76% to 79% since passage of the Inflation Reduction Act — the party’s signature climate and health care legislation. The share who “strongly approve” of his job performance increased over the same time period from 34% to 39% — the highest since mid-May. 
• Independent voters are still far more likely to disapprove (61%) of Biden’s job performance than approve (33%), but those figures still represent an improvement from late July, when a record-low 27% approved and a record-high 64% disapproved of him.

A string of wins for Democrats

Biden’s increasing popularity is welcome news for the Democratic Party in advance of the midterms given how important the president’s standing has historically been to his party’s chances of maintaining House and Senate majorities. 

It comes after a string of good news for the president, from falling gas prices and a stronger-than-expected July jobs report to bipartisan legislation for U.S. military veterans, semiconductor manufacturing investments and, finally, a massive partisan victory in the form of the Inflation Reduction Act. But the survey suggests that some of these victories may have been somewhat swamped by former President Donald Trump’s return to dominance of the news cycle.

In the latest survey, 58% of voters said they had seen, read or heard “a lot” about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s execution of a search warrant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, far more than the 36% who heard the same of Biden’s signing of the legislation. 

While that figure is far less than the share who heard a lot about Biden’s signing of a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package last year that led to a boost in his standing and voters’ views of Democrats on Capitol Hill, the survey shows other good signs for the Democrats, who are looking to upend typical midterm dynamics, when the president’s party nearly always pays an electoral penalty.

Democrats’ midterm standing

• According to the latest numbers, 47% of voters say they are most likely to vote for a Democratic candidate for Congress this year, compared with 42% who say the same of a Republican. It marks the Democrats’ widest generic ballot advantage since October.
• Independent voters are almost evenly split on the generic ballot question, with 33% inclined to back a Democrat, 32% eyeing a Republican and 35% undecided, 11 weeks out from Election Day.
• But while a majority of Democratic voters (54%) are very or extremely enthusiastic to vote in the midterms, it’s slightly less than the share of Republicans who say the same (60%). 

The latest Morning Consult/Politico survey was conducted Aug. 19-21, 2022, among a representative sample of 2,005 registered voters, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.