That President Joe Biden is performing poorly in the polls is seriously nothing new. It's been an issue for several months now, no matter what anyone who tries to say otherwise says. But we've really entered the territory where all sorts of alarms ought to be going off for the Biden administration. Biden himself claimed in his press conference earlier this year that "I don't believe the polls," around the same time his White House circulated a memo touting that the president's approval numbers were at 43 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight. Well, Biden may want to start believing the polls, because he's floundering with a key demographic that the Democratic Party has for far too long taken for granted.
"Hispanics" was trending on Twitter on Wednesday night, in large part to do with the findings of a Quinnipiac poll released earlier that day. Just 26 percent approve, while 54 percent disapprove, and 20 percent have no opinion.
I guess "Latinx" is not working...
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) April 13, 2022
Whenever someone asks me why the Democrats are alienating Hispanics, I give two answers:
— Giancarlo Sopo (@GiancarloSopo) April 13, 2022
A long one explaining economic and cultural dynamics at play. And a short one:
Inflation is especially bad for Hispanics and no one wants their 6-year-old “Latinx’d” at school.
Biden's overall approval rating in this poll is not so hot either. Thirty-five percent of respondents approve of his job performance, while 54 percent disapprove and 13 percent have no opinion.
The poll was conducted April 7-11, sampling 1,412 adults and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
Biden and the Democrat's poor showing among key demographics grabbed headlines earlier this week, when, as Matt highlighted, Reverend Al Sharpton let everyone on "Morning Joe" have it for how the Left treats minorities. "They’re losing people of color because they really don’t get the people of color’s life," he said.
The segment was aptly discussed on Tuesday night's episode of "Gutfeld!," where Tyrus and one of that night's guests, Lawrence Jones, similarly took issue with how the Democratic Party treats minorities, but also with the term "colored people."
"colored people" is not one of my pronouns! @PlanetTyrus Boom!??@Gutfeldfox
— Ms Flowers (@AnaTX61) April 13, 2022
This was not the only terrible poll to come out recently for the president, and among demographics where he should be doing better, much better.
In bright blue California, Biden has a 50 percent approval rating while 46 percent disapprove, according to a Berkeley IGS poll released earlier on Wednesday, which was co-sponsored by The Los Angeles Times. This is actually an improvement from February, when Biden had a 47 percent approval rating, while 48 percent disapproved of his performance.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who was previously California's senator, is faring even worse than Biden, as her poll numbers are decreasing since February. While she was once at a 38 percent approval rating, with 46 percent disapproving, now just 35 percent approve. About the same disapproves, at 45 percent.
The LA Times write-up from Melanie Mason in part highlights how, while the poll indicates "mixed" ratings for Biden, California voters are really not happy with how this administration is handling inflation. More respondents, at 59 percent, disapprove of how Biden is "dealing with inflation," than the 34 percent who approve of how he is handling the issue.
As Mason mentioned:
Views on inflation, as with most issues, vary drastically by party; just 5% of Republicans give Biden favorable marks, compared with 54% of Democrats and 27% of voters with no party preference.
But partisanship does not appear to be the sole factor driving some voters’ views. The state’s youngest voters, who generally tend to be more liberal, give Biden the lowest marks on inflation, while older Californians are more positive. Just 21% of voters ages 18-29 approve of Biden’s handling of the matter, compared with 49% approval from voters ages 65 and older.
This most recent Berkely IGS poll was conducted online between March 29-April 5, among 8,676 registered California voters. It "likely" has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, according to the poll.
As Spencer and I highlighted earlier this week, the latest CBS News poll is also particularly bad news for Biden, showing him to have an approval rating of 31 percent on how he is handling inflation, while 69 percent disapprove. His overall approval rating for that poll was 42 percent, while 58 percent disapprove.
Again, it's not really good news at all for Biden. Data from RealClearPolitics (RCP) from April 6-April 12 has him at a 40.2 percent approval rating, while 52.3 percent disapprove. FiveThirtyEight, which was last updated Wednesday afternoon, similarly has Biden at a 41.6 percent approval rating, while 52.1 percent disapprove.
It's worth noting that it was because of the Quinnipiac poll released on January 12, that the White House touted how the president was still underwater, just not as badly as that poll had him at, which was at a 33 percent approval rating, as Spencer highlighted at the time. Perhaps we can look forward to another memo on this one.