WASHINGTON, DC – FEBRUARY 25: U.S. President Joe Biden (L) looks on as Ketanji Brown Jackson, circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, delivers brief remarks as his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court during an event in the Cross Hall of the White House February 25, 2022 in Washington, DC. Pending confirmation, Judge Brown Jackson would succeed retiring Associate Justice Stephen Breyer and become the first-ever Black woman to serve on the high court: Drew Angerer/Getty

By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s been a busy couple of weeks in the news with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, dwindling Covid cases and the lifting of mask requirements, the trial of the first Trump supporter convicted for the Capitol insurrection, President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union speech and the appointment of the first African-American woman to the Supreme Court.

After months of sagging enthusiasm among Democrats and raging motivation on the part of Republican voters, the public opinion numbers took a turn in recent days, especially among African American voters.

While President Biden’s overall job approval numbers spiked up from the low 40s to nearly 50 percent, new surveys show that a whopping 69 percent of Black voters approve of the job Biden is doing, and 32 percent say they “strongly” approve.

Half of Black voters are are “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic about voting in the midterm elections in November now, up 12 percentage points since Feb. 25 when the president appointed Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court and the confirmation hearing date was set in the Senate. That’s up 12 points since Jackson’s nomination.

President Biden promised to nominate the first African-American woman to the Supreme Court. He kept that promise, and surveys show Black voters especially are responding positively to that move, according to Morning Consult/Politico polls.

In the latest survey and for the first time in months, Democrats are slightly more likely than Republicans to express enthusiasm about participating and voting in the midterm elections, 55 percent to 53 percent.

Despite the president’s gains in public approval of the job he’s doing, congressional Democrats only have a narrow advantage, 43 percent to 41 percent over Republicans on the generic ballot.

Previous surveys showed that Biden’s historic selection of a Black woman for a seat on the highest court in America had the potential to motivate Black voters, a demographic that will will be key to Democrats’ electoral prospects this year.

A majority of African Americans who participated in the survey, 55 percent, said they’d seen, read or heard at least something about Jackson’s nomination, showing it is a relatively salient event, according to Morning Consult analysts.

“What’s more, enthusiasm could rise further as Jackson’s confirmation process plays out,” they say.

As the judge for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia continues meeting with senators ahead of confirmation hearings set to begin March 21, guided by former Alabama Senator Doug Jones, support for her nomination has ticked up over the past week, as well as some opposition, as more Democratic and Republican voters begin to fall in line with their parties’ positions.

The share of voters who said the Senate should vote to confirm Jackson to the court increased from 46 percent to 49 percent, while the share who said it should not increased from 17 percent to 19 percent.

Democratic voters are about twice as likely to support Jackson’s confirmation as Republican voters are to oppose it, even after notable increases on both sides over the past week.

A whopping 67 percent of Black voters say the Senate should vote to confirm Jackson, compared with 46 percent of white voters, especially Republicans.

The latest Morning Consult/Politico survey was conducted March 4-6, 2022, among a representative sample of 2,005 registered U.S. voters, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

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