President Joe Biden’s speedy descent into Carter-era disapproval over inflation, immigration, and foreign policy is threatening to break up the Democratic Party’s ruling base of voters, according to new polling.
Starting under former President Donald Trump, the trickle of blue-collar, Hispanic, and black voters away from the liberals is starting to gush, giving Republicans a good chance to win both houses of Congress and potentially lock in their own ruling majority.
“Most distressing for Democrats is that Joe Biden’s ratings are eroding in his political base creating a path for Republicans to maximize their base, win the center and attract Democratic voters,” said pollsters Jim and John McLaughlin of McLaughlin & Associates.
In addition to the speed of the political change, the duo said the depth is also unusual.
Asked to review their recent polling for Secrets, John McLaughlin pointed to data showing that Biden is losing his own personal base that gave him his 2020 victory over Trump.
“Biden only gets 82% of his 2020 vote, only 84% among Democrats,” he said.
The base, he said, is upset with their president. McLaughlin said: “25% of Biden 2020 voters disapprove of his job and Biden’s disapproval is 27% among liberals, 19% among Democrats, 25% among African Americans, 40% among urban voters, 57% among women, 61% among suburban voters, 61% among Hispanics.”
He added, “The 2020 Biden coalition is totally destroyed.”
Jim McLaughlin noted that when voters were asked about the direction of the country, for example, 37% of blacks and 62% of Hispanics said the United States was heading in the wrong direction.
Their disgruntlement with the president, he said, explains the shift of the party leadership’s focus to abortion and the Roe v. Wade decision hinted at in a leaked court ruling.
Given the GOP’s excitement about bruising the president in the midterm congressional elections, he said Democrats need a new issue that has little to do with Biden and the White House bumbling.
“Republicans are on offense in these elections. The base is motivated, and I really believe Republicans are going to beat the Democrats this year among Hispanics and gain a large chunk of black voters,” said McLaughlin.
“That’s why the Democrats and their media allies are trying to do everything to distract from Biden’s failures on the economy, inflation, crime, national security, and the border. Democrat candidates aren’t even looking for Biden’s endorsement in Democrat primaries,” he added.
John McLaughlin listed a dozen topics their poll slides showed voters were upset with. "Joe Biden has failed beyond anyone’s imagination,” he told Secrets.
And Jim McLaughlin added that the voters typically warm to Biden aren't accepting the excuses coming from his team for their failures. Even now, Biden’s speech explaining away his responsibility for inflation was being mocked on social media before the president returned to the Oval Office.
“It’s bizarre. People to their credit totally get it. His spending is what caused the inflation,” McLaughlin said, adding, “These knuckleheads have no clue how to pivot, horrible speech, just played the blame game.”