CNN Poll: Biden’s job approval has dropped since start of the year as economic concerns remain prevalent

By Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN

(CNN) — Americans’ views of President Joe Biden’s job performance have ebbed since the start of the year, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds. The public’s views of the national economy remain lackluster, with more than 4 in 10 saying they’re seriously concerned rising costs could push them out of their own communities.

Roughly 4 in 10 Americans say the economy or the cost of living is the most important issue facing the country, far above the share who name any other issue, and few express optimism about where the economy is headed.

Fewer agree with the Democratic Party than with the GOP on how to handle the economy, crime, America’s role in the world or immigration, but Democrats do hold an advantage on a distinctly different set of issues. Americans align more with them than Republicans on abortion, climate change and voting-related issues, according to the survey, issues which seemed to be motivating factors for much of the Democratic base in last year’s midterm elections. And the public is closely split between the Democratic and Republican approaches to helping the middle class.

Neither party has majority support for its approach to any of the topics tested in the poll, with a significant minority of the public saying their views don’t match up with either party’s positions.

Biden, who began the year with a 45% job approval rating, has since seen his numbers erode further. In polls between March and early November, about 4 in 10 approved. In the latest survey, his job approval rating stands at 37%, with 63% disapproving, a downtick that leaves him facing his worst numbers since taking office by 1 percentage point. That remains a few points higher than former President Donald Trump’s approval low point of 34%, reached in 2021 shortly after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. Trump is currently the front-runner for next year’s Republican nomination to challenge Biden.

Biden’s job approval stands at 72% among Democrats and 63% among self-described liberals, down from ratings in the 80s among those groups in January of this year. Fewer than half in most demographic groups now approve of his job performance, including college graduates (48%), Black Americans (47%), Latino Americans (42%), those 45 or older (41%), those younger than 45 (33%), White Americans (33%) and those without college degrees (31%).

A 71% majority of Americans rate economic conditions in the country as poor, with 38% calling them very poor. That marks an improvement from the summer of 2022, when 82% saw the economy as poor, but remains far worse than Americans’ pre-pandemic assessments of the economy. Views of the future are only slightly more optimistic than views of the present, with 61% expecting the economy to remain poor a year from now.

By a 10-point margin, Americans say their views on the economy align more closely with the Republican Party than with the Democratic Party; they also side with the GOP over the Democrats on crime and policing (by a 14-point margin), immigration (by 14 points) and America’s role in world affairs (by 6 points). But the public sides with the Democrats by similar margins on a slate of other issues: abortion (by 16 points), climate change (by 13 points), voting rights and election integrity (by 8 points) and education (by 5 points). Americans are more closely split on which party’s vision for helping the middle class is closer to their own (35% feel closer to Democrats, 32% to Republicans). Those divides follow a similar pattern as seen in polling last spring, in the run-up to the 2022 midterms.

Political independents side with the GOP on crime and policing (by a 13-point margin), immigration (10 points), and the economy (9 points). They align with Democrats on abortion (24 points), climate change (20 points), voting rights and election integrity (19 points), helping the middle class (13 points) and education (11 points).

About one-third of Democrats don’t think their party aligns with them on immigration, world affairs and crime; roughly similar shares of Republicans disagree with the GOP when it comes to abortion and climate change.

Asked to name the most important issue currently facing the country, 42% name economic or financial issues, a slight downtick from 48% at the start of the year, but still far ahead of any other issue. Another 12% in the most recent poll mention immigration or border security, with 10% naming foreign policy issues – an unusually high level of concern for that topic, which may be due in part to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Other topics of concern include partisanship and extremism (6%), guns and public safety (6%), and elections and threats to democracy (4%).

These concerns aren’t equally distributed across party lines. Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, for instance, are 17 points likelier than Democrats and Democratic leaners to mention immigration or the border as the most important issue facing the nation, and 11 points likelier to cite economic-related issues. By contrast, Democratic-aligned adults are 8 points likelier than Republican-aligned adults to name issues related to elections and democracy, and 4 points likelier to mention environmental or energy issues.

There’s little variation among all Americans, though, in how the public views Biden’s handling of some of these top issues. Just 33% currently approve of his handling of the economy, 35% of his approach to helping the middle class and 36% of his handling of crime. The president fares slightly better on environmental policy, with 43% approving.

Economic concerns hit home for many Americans

Americans’ concerns for the country as a whole aren’t necessarily the same issues that worry them within their own communities. But both nationally and locally, economic concerns loom large.

An 84% majority say they’re at least somewhat worried about the state of the economy in their community, with 43% saying they are very worried – a rise from two years ago, when only 3 in 10 were very worried. And 74% today say they’re at least somewhat worried that the cost of living will climb so high that they will be unable to remain in their community, with 43% very worried about this possibility.

A 54% majority of those in households making less than $50,000 annually say they’re very worried about being pushed out by rising costs, as do 51% of those younger than 35, 48% of people of color and 48% of those who describe themselves as living in an urban area.

A divide on approaches to crime

A 72% majority of Americans say they’re at least somewhat worried about the risk of crime in their community, including 33% who say they’re very worried, a rise from two years ago. Sixty-five percent say they’re at least somewhat worried about violent crime, and 64% that they’re at least somewhat worried about theft and property crime in their community.

Roughly two-thirds of the public gives credence to a range of proposals to reduce crime in their community. A 71% majority says increasing police patrols would be at least somewhat likely to reduce crime while 69% say the same for increasing police funding. Similar shares endorse the potential effectiveness of enacting stricter sentencing laws for property crime (68%), increasing the number of cases in which prosecutors pursue charges (67%), increasing funding for local social services and anti-poverty programs (67%) and expanding community intervention programs (65%).

But this seeming uniformity masks some significant demographic and political divides. A 78% majority of Democrats see funding for social services as potentially helpful, more than say the same about any other proposal. By contrast, it’s the policy seen by the fewest Republicans as likely to reduce crime, with just 52% believing it would be likely to help.

Republicans, White Americans and those 45 and older are all significantly likelier than Democrats, Black Americans and those younger than 45 to say that increased policing, prosecutions and harsher sentencing are likely to reduce crime in their communities.

Most Americans express at least some confidence in their local police (68%), other people in their community (66%) and their local government (58%) to reduce crime where they live, with fewer saying the same of their state government (47%) or the US government (36%). While 77% of Americans age 45 and older, and 74% of White Americans express confidence in their local police, just 58% of those younger than 45 and 45% of Black Americans say the same.

Americans who are the most concerned about the risk of crime where they live also express the most distrust of their own community – 52% of those who are very concerned about the risk of crime say they have little or no faith in the people living near them to reduce crime levels, compared with 29% of those with less heightened concerns. Those who are very concerned about crime are also significantly likelier than others to say that more police patrols, stricter sentencing laws for property crimes and pursuing charges in more cases are very likely to reduce crime.

A 57% majority of registered voters say that the outcome of next year’s presidential election could have a big effect on the amount of crime and violence in the country, while 42% say that crime levels won’t be affected by who wins. In the fall of 2020, just 31% of registered voters thought that the upcoming presidential election would have no effect on crime.

A 73% majority of Republican voters currently say that the 2024 election could have a major effect on crime and violence, with half of Democratic and independent voters saying the same.

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from November 1-30 among a random national sample of 1,795 adults initially reached by mail. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups.

CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

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