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President Joe Biden's current approval rating is lower than that of the last four presidents who failed to win a second term, according to polling data.
Biden's popularity among voters has been a major talking point in the 2024 campaign. His approval rating percentage has steadily been in the low 40s for most of his presidency. It was at its highest when Biden first took office in January 2021 at 53.1 percent and at its lowest in July 2022 at 38.2 percent, according to poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight.
A recent poll conducted by the American Research Group from December 17-20 found that 37 percent of Americans approve of Biden's handling of his presidency, while 57 percent disapprove. The poll surveyed 1,100 adults living in the continental U.S. and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
However, when looking at an aggregation of the current polls, Biden's approval rating is a bit higher at 39.3 percent.
Looking at how Biden's popularity fares compared to past incumbents who lost their reelection campaigns, he has a lower approval rating than Donald Trump, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford at the same point in their presidencies.
On the 1,074th day of Trump's presidency, he had a 42.5 percent approval rating, compared to Biden's 39.3 percent. Trump later lost the 2020 election to Biden.
There will likely be a rematch between Trump and Biden in 2024 as Biden is the Democratic incumbent and Trump is the current front-runner for the Republican nomination.
Former Republican President George H.W. Bush had a 51.8 percent approval rating on his 1,074th day in office, which is 12.5 points ahead of Biden at the same point in his presidency. Bush then lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
Biden's approval rating is about 10 points behind former Democratic President Jimmy Carter's at this point in their presidencies. On the 1,074th day of the Carter administration, the president had a 49.2 percent approval rating. Carter lost to Republican candidate Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election.
Former Republican President Gerald Ford lost the 1976 election to Carter, but his circumstances were different. Ford, former President Richard Nixon's vice president, took office in 1974 after Nixon resigned following the Watergate scandal. Ford was only president for 895 days. On his 855th day in office, he had an approval rating of 44.5 percent. On Biden's 855th day in office, he had an approval rating of 41 percent.
Newsweek reached out to Biden's campaign via email for comment.
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About the writer
Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more