Biden hurting among Independents;

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Press release content from PR Newswire. The AP news staff was not involved in its creation.

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Biden hurting among Independents;

PRESS RELEASE: Paid content from PR Newswire

Press release content from PR Newswire. The AP news staff was not involved in its creation.

December 29, 2022 GMT

Independent voters abandon Biden, choose DeSantis.

DeSantis more popular with Independents than Biden;

The Zogby Economic index currently stands at 87, a two-point increase since August;

UTICA, N.Y., Dec. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In our post-election survey of 1,000 Independent voters, who voted in the U.S. midterm election, President Biden did not perform well with Independent voters. 61% disapproved of his job as president (43% strongly and 18% somewhat disapproved combined). Only 37% of Independent voters approved of President Biden (11% strongly and 26% somewhat approved combined).

Based on our national survey of 2,004 voters who voted in the November 2022 mid-term election, conducted right after the election between November 9 and November 11, the index currently stands at 87, a two-point increase since August, and the first upward movement since the beginning of the Biden administration. Thirty-nine percent of voters rated President Biden’s performance as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ (a one-point increase since August) and 26% (a one-point drop) gave the same rating to Congress.

Highlights

Job approval

A majority (61%) of Independent voters over the age of 30 disapproved of the president, while only 36% approved.

Some sub-groups remained somewhat positive of the job Biden was doing as president among the nationwide sample of Independents. For instance, large city voters (48% approved/49% disapproved), African Americans, (49% approved/44% disapproved) and suburban females (43% approved/55% disapproved) were slightly more approving of the president compared to the overall sample of Independent voters.

Issues

Younger voters aged 18-29 were much more likely to see reproductive rights (17%) as the most important issue that decided which candidates they voted for compared with the oldest voters surveyed aged 65+ (11%), while the oldest voters surveyed aged 50-64 and 65+ were more likely to view inflation (both 26%) and threats to the democratic process (13% and 20%, respectively) as more important in who they decided to vote for in the mid-term election.

2024 Horse races

In a rematch of the 2020 presidential election, we asked Independent voters who they would vote for between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Both candidates were tied at 38%, while 17% wanted someone else and 7% were not sure.

In another hypothetical 2024 presidential match-up, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis handily beats President Biden (DeSantis led 43% to 34%) among a large nationwide sample of Independent voters. While this doesn’t mean the end of Biden, it is a sure indicator that the Florida governor is the real deal.

Economic index

The perception of U.S. foreign policy (34% rate it as ‘excellent’ or ‘good) has also improved four percentage points since August, however, the perception of U.S. economic policy (27%) has stayed virtually unchanged. The shift in support for foreign policy is most notable among Democrats where now 60% rate it as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’, compared to 49% in August and 58% in May.

The number of voters who see their own personal financial situation as ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ has remained steady at 39%. However, the number of voters who feel very or fairly secure in their jobs and who are fairly or very confident that their children will have a better life than themselves have improved considerably to 77% (a 12-point increase since August) and 55% (a 10-point increase), respectively.