A new survey from Gallup looking at President Biden's continuously flagging approval numbers has found a conclusion that's sure to startle Democrats ahead of the midterms and, if not turned around, spells trouble for a potential Biden reelection bid in 2024.
While many have soured on the Biden administration's job performance, it turns out the biggest drop has been among young Americans who are quickly becoming disenchanted with Biden and his agenda. It's not a small drop either — among Gen Z and millennials, Biden's approval is down 20 points since he took office.
@GallupNews : Biden Job Approval Down Most Among Younger Generations, https://t.co/6hEz6TsQKH pic.twitter.com/UNCy9PPVBR
— John McCormick (@McCormickJohn) April 14, 2022
Gallup explains the disparity in Biden approval trends between young adults and older generations:
During Biden's honeymoon period, 60% of both Generation Z adults and millennials approved of the job he was doing, putting these groups above the national average approval rating. His support was below the national average among baby boomers (53%) and, especially, traditionalists (48%) early in his presidency.
By the summer, as coronavirus cases unexpectedly rose, Biden had lost significant support among Generation Z, millennials and Generation X, ranging from seven- to 10-percentage-point drops. But his approval rating held steady among baby boomers and traditionalists.
All generational groups have become less approving of Biden since the summer, after the troubled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in late August 2021, with the exception of traditionalists, whose approval has not changed.
Traditionalists are the only major demographic subgroup whose approval is similar now to what it was in the early part of Biden's presidency. A small number of other subgroups -- including some that have never been inclined to approve of Biden -- have modestly lower approval now, with declines of less than 10 percentage points. These include Republicans (down four points, from 10% to 6%), adults aged 65 and older (down five points), baby boomers (down seven points), political conservatives (down eight points) and 50- to 64-year-old adults (down nine points).
At a more granular level, Biden's approval has declined more among independents than among Democrats and Republicans, and Hispanic and black Americans are the subgroups among which the president has lost even more support. According to Gallup, 87 percent of non-Hispanic black adults approved of Biden's job performance earlier in his term, but fell to 74 percent by last summer and continued its downward trend to 67 percent approval now — a 20 point drop.
Biden's approval among Hispanics started at 73 percent at the beginning of 2021 but now sits barely above water at 52 percent, an even larger 21-point decrease.
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