Millions of people are reconsidering their vote for President Joe Biden last year as they see him hobble through a growing stack of national problems.
The latest Zogby Poll provided to Secrets said that 20% “regret voting for President Biden.”
Remarkably, 21% of Democrats expressed regret, as did 29% of his Republican voters. The overall hit to Biden was tempered by independents, of which just 14% said they wanted their vote back.
The Zogby Analytics survey is rich with details of who is abandoning Biden.
Pollster Jonathan Zogby noted that while the 20% number may seem low, especially considering that 76% do not have regrets, it is extremely bad because of the closeness of many states Biden won in beating former President Donald Trump.
“On the surface, it doesn't seem like much, especially if you look at the three-quarters of likely voters who did not regret their vote; 4% were not sure how they felt,” he said.
But, he added, “if you take into consideration the size of the electorate, and how the last two presidential elections (2016 and 2020) were decided by tens of thousands of votes in a handful of battleground states, this could really hurt President Biden's chances in 2024.”
Also notable is that he said the survey was taken before the Afghan withdrawal debacle that has made many voters eager for Biden to be punished, impeached, or resign. In a Rasmussen Reports survey this week, 52% called for his resignation. And a new Ipsos survey showed his approval at 46% and disapproval at 48%.
In the Zogby Poll, Biden’s base now appears shaky. While women and older voters have fewer regrets about their vote for him, younger and urban voters, as well as black and Hispanic people, were more regretful.
“Men (27% yes/70% no/3% not sure) were twice as likely to regret voting for Joe Biden than women (13% yes/82% no/5% not sure). Ethnicity also factored in how much voters expressed regret about voting for Biden: Hispanics (33% yes/63% no/4% not sure) and African Americans (25% yes/70% no/5% not sure) were more likely than white voters (16% yes/80% no/4% not sure) to regret voting for Biden,” read Zogby’s analysis.
“Where voters lived was also of significance when it came to whether voters' regretted voting for President Biden. Urban voters (28% yes/67% no/4% not sure) were twice as likely to regret voting for Biden than suburban (14% yes/83% no/4%not sure) and rural voters (12% yes/86% no/3%not sure),” he added.
Of course, there is lots of time for a comeback, and Zogby noted that.
“Even though Joe Biden has suffered humiliating defeats in recent weeks, he still has time to recover. One still gets the sense his ship is sinking fast, and he might not have any lifeboats aboard to save him. Biden's low approval numbers, the botched withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, and inflation eating away the purchasing power of Americans are the president's biggest problems now,” said Zogby.
What’s needed is some luck, he added, though Friday's pitiful jobs creation numbers are another blow.
“Come next poll, many more voters might be expressing regret if Biden and company do not score a victory soon,” said Zogby.