President Joe Biden’s low poll numbers on the issues most important to voters could cause issues for Democrats in the midterms, according to ABC News’ political director.
During a segment of ABC’s “This Week,” Rick Klein, the network’s political director, broke down the president’s poll numbers.
“What you’re seeing is President Biden is a serious drag on Democratic candidates nationwide,” Klein began.
He explained, “It’s driven by his approval rating on a range of issues. He is badly underwater on all of the top issues including the big ones: inflation, gas prices.”
“[Biden] is less than 30% approval rating on the issues that we’re told by voters are dominating their state of mind. Even on issues like gun violence, abortion rights, issues that he is elevating into the conversation in recent weeks, he is still significantly underwater,” Klein added.
According to an ABC News/Ipsos poll, 28% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of inflation, 27% approve of his handling of gas prices, 38% approve of his handling of crime, 35% approve of his handling of gun violence, and 41% approve of his handling of abortion issues.
However, Klein pointed out that one issue where Biden is above water is his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the poll, 56% approve of the president’s handling of the virus.
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Still, Klein said, “The problem for Democrats and Biden is that that happens to be the issue that voters are telling us is the least likely to be animating their vote this fall.”
“And that’s also spilling over into an enthusiasm gap that’s developing. You see this in our poll with Ipsos, 13 point edge for Republicans in terms of people that say they are very enthusiastic, very eager to vote this fall,” he continued.
Finally, Klein said, “That enthusiasm gap is a little narrower than it was last time we polled on it two months ago.”
“But still, those are the kind of numbers that have Democrats worried about a potential wave election,” he added.
According to FiveThirtyEight, as of Monday morning, the president’s approval rating is underwater by double digits.
Roughly 54% of Americans disapprove of his job performance, while 40.8% approve.
At the same point in his presidency, former President Donald Trump received a 41.6% approval rating.