President Joe Biden: Google

Public Opinion –
By Analyst Glynn Wilson –

As the nation faces a pandemic, a weakened economy and political unrest that spiraled out of control under the rein of Donald Trump, President Joe Biden appears to be enjoying a honeymoon with the American People and the press as the hellscape year of 2020 rolls into a new era in 2021.

While the 45th president never once hit the 50 percent mark in most public opinion surveys for personal or job approval, Biden has only been president for a week and he starts out with a clear majority of 56 percent of American voters who approve of the job he’s doing so far, according to the latest Morning Consult poll. And he holds a personal favorability rating of 58 percent.

About the same as Trump’s low approval rating as he left office, only 34 percent of voters say they disapprove of Biden and the job he’s doing.

Biden’s superior early marks are driven by a more unified base of Democrats, as well as more support among self-described independent voters: 91 percent of Democrats approve of Biden’s initial job performance and 49 percent of independents back Biden’s early approach, which is 8 points higher than Trump’s rating with independents four years ago. It’s also higher than the 83 percent of Republicans who said the same of Trump in January 2017.

“The Jan. 22-24 poll of more than 11,000 registered voters, which has a 1-point margin of error, came after Biden’s Jan. 20 inaugural address that focused on bridging America’s political divide received a warm reception from most voters, including those of the opposition party,” the in-house analysis says.

When it comes to his job approval, only 18 percent of Republican voters back Biden’s early performance, however, while 71 percent disapprove. That’s similar to the percentage of Democrats who said the same of Trump after his inauguration. It’s still a divided electorate.

Comparing the latest responses to thousands gathered Jan. 17-19, the share of Republican voters who view Biden favorably increased 3 percentage points, to 18 percent, while the share who held unfavorable views fell 4 points, to 79 percent.

The responses from Republican voters gathered before the inauguration had a 1-point margin of error, while the latest polling had a 2-point margin of error.

“That improvement — along with similar gains among independents — contributed to Biden yielding his highest favorability rating among the overall population since Morning Consult began daily tracking of the metric in May 2020.”

According to the latest polling, 58 percent of voters hold favorable views of the new president (up 3 points since before his inauguration) while 38 percent hold unfavorable opinions (down 4 points), which gives Biden a bigger popularity bounce than the one he saw after his successful party convention in August, 2020.

Vice President

Like Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris is also seeing her popularity nationwide reach new peaks during her first days in office. Over half of voters (52 percent) view her favorably, up 2 points since pre-inauguration surveys and 6 points since the November election. The share of voters who view her unfavorably fell 4 points since Nov. 3, to 40 percent, with the bulk of the movement coming after she was sworn in.

Positive public sentiment about America’s new leaders was joined by a big improvement in optimism about the direction the country is headed.

On a daily basis, Morning Consult asks an average of 6,400 U.S. adults: “Now, generally speaking, would you say that things in the country are going in the right direction, or have they pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track?”

The latest surveys show the numbers coming around, to 40 percent who say things are going in the right direct, while 60 percent are not yet convinced. But the latest surveys show this as a drop of 17 percent since the Capitol insurrection, when 77 percent of the country said things were going in the wrong direction.

But for the Trump years, 40 percent was the highest the positive number had reached since early March, before the coronavirus hit and changed American life.

Predictably, the improvement in optimism was driven by Democrats: 59 percent now say the country is headed in the right direction, which is up 37 points since before Biden’s inauguration.