President Biden’s approval rating slipped back to 40 percent in a new Gallup poll two weeks before the critical midterm elections that will determine which party will control Congress for the next two years.
The poll released Tuesday showed that Biden’s approval rating dropped 2 points from 42 percent approval in Gallup’s poll last month. The president’s approval rating has stayed between 40 and 42 percent for most of this year, except for when it fell to 38 percent in July and when it rose to 44 percent in August.
Pollsters also found that Biden’s disapproval rating is 56 percent, unchanged from last month and below the high of 59 percent disapproval that Gallup recorded in July.
Almost 40 percent of independents approve of Biden’s performance, up from 36 percent in recent months.
Biden completed his seventh quarter in office with an average of 42 percent approval, mostly in line with the rating that his recent predecessors have had at this point in their presidencies.
Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush both saw significantly higher ratings, close to 70 percent approval, at this point in their respective times in office as the United States was in the midst of its response to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the aftermath of 9/11, respectively.
Gallup’s analysis states that Biden’s seventh quarter was marked by continued high inflation and gas prices, the latter of which it notes have dropped significantly from their peak earlier this year but remain above where they were a year ago.
Biden saw a series of legislative successes in recent months, including the passage of the climate, health care and tax bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act, which were followed by improvement in his approval ratings.
But his rating has dropped more recently.
Gallup’s analysis states that Americans continue to view Biden’s job performance more negatively than positively, which it says is likely to hurt his fellow Democrats’ chances in the upcoming midterm elections.
Democrats are trying to avoid a historical trend that sees the president’s party lose seats in Congress during the midterm elections.
The Gallup poll was conducted with 1,009 adults between Oct. 3 and Oct. 20. The margin of error is 4 percentage points.