The latest Zogby Poll® shows President Joe Biden's job performance was upside down, as only 44% of surveyed voters (20% excellent; 24% good) had a positive opinion of his job as president, while 55% (38% poor; 17% fair) had a negative opinion.
Biden's job performance also fluctuated among certain demographics, such as, age, race, where voters live, political party, gender, and education.
Younger voters aged 18-29 (53% positive/46% negative) had a positive opinion of Biden's job performance; this was true of all voters under the age of 50 (51% positive/46% negative). Conversely, a majority of voters over the age of 50 (36% positive/63% negative) rated Biden's job performance negatively.
Minority voters-majorities of African Americans (66% positive/34% negative) and Hispanics (52% positive/46% negative) gave President Biden a positive rating, while White voters (38% positive/62% negative) were much more negative.
Where voters lived only made a difference with respect to President Biden's job performance in large urban areas. Voters who lived in cities with a population of 500K+ (66% positive/34% negative) thought the president was doing a great job, while two-thirds voters in small cities-100K population or less (34% positive/66% negative), voters in the suburbs (34% positive/64% negative), and rural voters (34% positive/65% negative) gave Biden a negative rating.
Finally, gender-more men (49% positive/51% negative) and women (40% positive/59% negative) had a negative opinion of Biden's job performance, but women were more likely to give the president a negative rating. Education was also a factor in how voters rated Biden's job performance. Half of college educated (50% positive/49% negative) voters gave Biden a positive rating while non-college educated voters (40% positive/59% negative) gave Biden a negative rating.
Please click here to view the frequency tables.
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Voters trusted Republican leaders (43%) slightly more than President Biden (41%) to grow the U.S. economy, but the difference was within the margin of error. Voters under the age of 50 were more likely to trust Biden (46%) to grow the economy better than Republican leaders (36%), but voters over the age of 50 favored Republicans (36% Biden/50% Republican leaders) to grow the economy.
Men (45% Biden/43% Republican leaders) were more likely to trust Biden, while women (38% Biden/43% Republican leaders) sided with Republicans. Large city voters (57% Biden/31% Republican leaders) put more faith in Biden to grow the economy, while small city (33% Biden/51% Republican leaders), suburban (38% Biden/44% Republican leaders), and rural voters (29% Biden/57% Republican leaders) trusted Republicans more to grow the U.S. economy.
The U.S.-Mexican Border has been in the news lately and it's not good news for President Biden. Democrats and Republicans are criticizing his apathetic approach to how he has handled tens of thousands of migrants rushing the border. Surveyed voters sided with Republicans (41% Biden/43% Republican leaders), barely, saying they trusted them more than President Biden on immigration policy. Age was a factor in who voters trusted more; younger voters under the age of 50 (49% Biden/32% Republican leaders) trusted Biden to lead better when it came to immigration policy, while voters over the age of 50 (32% Biden/53% Republican leaders) felt Republicans were up to the task and trusted them more on immigration.
A continuing theme in this poll was Biden's difficulty reaching women voters (37% Biden/46% Republican leaders). Women trusted Republican leaders more on immigration policy but men (45% Biden/40% Republican leaders) felt the opposite. Suburban women (35% Biden/51% Republican leaders) were much more likely to trust Republicans to handle immigration policy than President Biden, while suburban men (39% Biden/37% Republican leaders) were nearly split on who could better handle immigration policy.
When it came to funding the U.S. military, surveyed voters trusted Republican leaders (46%) more than President Biden (37%). Biden's struggles continued with women voters. Women (34% Biden/47% Republican leaders) were more likely to trust Republican leaders than President Biden on military funding. Uncharacteristic for this poll, men (39% Biden/45% Republican leaders) felt similar and trusted Republican leaders to fund the military more than President Biden.
When it came to gender and where voters lived, suburban women (36% Biden/48% Republican leaders) continued to abandon Biden and support Republican leaders on funding the military, while suburban men (35% Biden/42% Republican leaders) also trusted Republican leaders more than Biden. Urban women (37% Biden/43% Republican leaders) were also more likely to trust Republicans more on funding the military compared to urban men (44% Biden/42% Republican leaders), who barely trusted Biden more to fund the military. Suburban voters (36% Biden/46% Republican leaders), rural voters (26% Biden/57% Republican leaders), small city voters (27% Biden/54% Republican leaders), and medium size city voters (35% Biden/46% Republican leaders) were much more likely to trust Republican leaders than large city voters (50% Biden/34% Republican leaders), who continued to trust Biden on most issues.
Finally, as if things could not get any worse for the Biden Administration now, voters were more inclined to trust Republicans leaders (41%) to handle the situation in Afghanistan than President Biden (34%).
Interestingly, with this issue, the youngest voters aged 18-24 (31% Biden/37% Republican leaders) were slightly more inclined to trust Republican leaders to handle the situation in Afghanistan than President Biden. Millennials aged 25-34 (40% Biden/33% Republican leaders), on the other hand, were more likely to trust the president to fix the situation in Afghanistan than Republican leaders.
Politically, the issue was partisan, as two-thirds of Democrats (67% Biden/12% Republican leaders) trusted Biden, while three-quarters trusted Republicans (7% Biden/74% Republican leaders). Independents (25% Biden/32% Republican leaders/43% not sure) were mostly unsure but trusted Republicans more than President Biden to handle Afghanistan.
When it came to where voters lived, only voters in large urban areas (51% Biden/29% Republican leaders) trusted Biden more than Republican leaders, while every other setting: medium size cities (31% Biden/38% Republican leaders), small cities (27% Biden/45% Republican leaders), suburbs (30% Biden/42% Republican leaders) and rural areas (25% Biden/52% Republican leaders) trusted Republican leaders more to handle the crisis in Afghanistan.
Please click here to view the frequency tables.
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Two-thirds (68%) of U.S. likely voters gave U.S. foreign policy a negative (fair and poor combined) rating, while only 28% gave it a positive rating (excellent and good combined).
Overall, a plurality (43%) of surveyed voters rated U.S. foreign policy poor, while a quarter (24%) gave it a fair rating. Only 9% rated U.S. foreign policy as excellent and the other 19% gave it a good rating.
Nearly a majority of every sub-group surveyed gave U.S. foreign policy a negative rating (fair and poor combined), including some groups favorable to Democrats (49% negative/48% positive). These included African Americans (50% negative/47% positive), Hispanics (57% negative/37% positive), liberals (55% negative/42% positive), younger voters aged 18-29 (61% negative/35% positive), large city voters (53% negative/45% positive), and Independents (77% negative/16% positive).
Please click here to view the frequency tables.
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** The Takeaways **
- The tables have turned in a couple of months for President Biden's job performance rating! He's gone from positive to negative in no time and now he's underwater; a majority of likely voters gave him a negative (fair and poor numbers combined) job performance rating.
- President Biden is struggling with women voters on all fronts, especially suburban women. Women trust Republican leaders more than President Biden on several key issues, i.e., growing the economy, immigration policy, funding the military and Afghanistan.
- Outside of large urban areas, Biden is struggling with "trust" among voters in small to medium size cities, the suburbs, and rural areas.
- While Biden's base still trusts him on most issues, Biden is struggling mightily with his foreign policy agenda, especially the U.S. withdrawing military from Afghanistan. When it came to handling Afghanistan, younger voters aged 18-24 were inclined to trust Republicans leaders more than President Biden.
- A strong majority of voters in our survey gave U.S. foreign policy a negative rating, including African Americans, Hispanics, younger voters, Democrats, and liberals.
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Zogby Analytics Poll Methodology
US Likely Voters
8/18/21 - 8/19/21
Zogby Analytics conducted an online survey of 900 likely voters in the US.
Using internal and trusted interactive partner resources, thousands of adults were randomly invited to participate in this interactive survey. Each invitation is password coded and secure so that one respondent can only access the survey one time.
Using information based on census data, voter registration figures, CIA fact books and exit polls, we use complex weighting techniques to best represent the demographics of the population being surveyed. Weighted variables may include age, race, gender, region, party, education, and religion. The party breakdown for this survey is as follows: 38% Democrat, 38% Republican and 24% Independent/unaffiliated.
Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for 900 is +/- 3.3 percentage points. This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey repeated will have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.
Subsets of the data have a larger margin of error than the whole data set. As a rule we do not rely on the validity of very small subsets of the data especially sets smaller than 50-75 respondents. At that subset we can make estimations based on the data, but in these cases the data is more qualitative than quantitative.
Additional factors can create error, such as question wording and question order.
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About Zogby Analytics:
Zogby Analytics is respected nationally and internationally for its opinion research capabilities. Since 1984, Zogby has empowered clients with powerful information and knowledge critical for making informed strategic decisions.
The firm conducts multi-phased opinion research engagements for banking and financial services institutions, insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers, retailers and developers, religious institutions, cultural organizations, colleges and universities, IT companies and Federal agencies. Zogby's dedication and commitment to excellence and accuracy are reflected in its state-of-the-art opinion research capabilities and objective analysis and consultation.