From the sandy shores of Delaware to South Carolina, President Biden is nearing 100 days of vacation this year. With vulnerable Democrats keeping the perennially unpopular president at arms’ length leading into the midterms, those vacation days are poised to grow.
Case in point: New Mexico.
In 2020, Joe Biden won the state by more than 10 points. The Governor’s office, the state legislature and nearly the entire congressional delegation is made up of Democrats. Joe Biden even appointed New Mexican Deb Haaland as his Interior Secretary, making her eighth in line to the presidency. Registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by nearly 200,000. It was a great time for Joe Biden’s party in the Land of Enchantment.
And then Joe Biden became President.
The President is now underwater by 4 points in the state, one of 44 where his popularity has sagged. Within the state, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is up for re-election. She’s a card-carrying Biden sycophant and, in what seems like an eternity ago, was even on the short list to be his Vice President. Today, Governor Lujan Grisham is now in a toss-up race against her Republican challenger and a few national figures are coming to her rescue, but so far she’s not reaching out to Biden.
Meanwhile, popular Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently made a visit to New Mexico to campaign for Lujan Grisham’s opponent, Mark Ronchetti. The importance of the DeSantis visit wasn’t lost on the media and it wasn’t lost on Lujan Grisham who spent the whole day on social media trying, and failing, to fight back. It’s important to note that DeSantis is also in the middle of a re-election campaign. Yet, his presence is in demand across the country and he’s taking time from his own campaign to support fellow Republicans in other states. Joe Biden, not so much.
One might think that former New Mexico Congresswoman and current Biden Cabinet Secretary Deb Haaland could help. Again, no. Instead as one recent report noted, Haaland will head to California in support of the Biden agenda. Remember in 2020 Biden earned the highest percentage of the vote in California for any candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. Fast forward less than two years later and the Golden State is one of the last political places Biden can consider safe. California is the same state whose legislature passed a “safe consumption” bill setting up facilities where people could consume illicit drugs under supervision.
For those keeping score at home, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is an in-demand leader in tight races across the country, President Biden has taken over 220 days of vacation as his party plays defense on former home turf of New Mexico and California.
President Biden’s first term is such a disaster that it’s difficult to put a thumb on the exact reason his presidency became political poison so quickly. However, you probably wouldn’t be too far off if you playing political “Clue” and suspected that Joe Biden murdered the family budget in the White House using the green agenda as a weapon. The evidence is clear.
We need look no further than President Biden’s running approval ratings since he took office to the reason why he’s on the sidelines. Biden’s approval/disapproval goes underwater around August 20, 2021. No doubt the catastrophic failure of the Afghanistan withdrawal played a role, but the ever-growing price of gas has kept Biden in the negative for well over a year. In fact, Biden’s recent “resurgence” in approval of above 40 percent is likely due to the temporary softening of gas prices.
Taking the nation from low gas prices and energy independence to record prices at the pump and once in a generation inflation is a tattoo that Biden can’t erase. It’s also one that the President’s former political friends do not want around their campaign events, even in the bluest of states. Every newly-tentative Biden supporter is hoping their constituents forget Joe Biden is a part of this campaign. The result is more vacation days for Biden, and more struggling for the American family.
President Joe Biden may be missing from the campaign trail this fall, but his failures, and those who supported them, will be front and center.
Larry Behrens is the Communications Director for Power The Future, a non-profit that advocates for America’s energy workers. You can find him on Twitter @larrybehrens or you can email him: larry@powerthefuture.com.