President Biden’s support among black voters is dwindling. And it’s difficult to imagine them returning anytime soon.
President Biden’s poll numbers have recently plummeted. According to the most recent poll, he has 58 percent disapproval and 41 percent approval. In the same poll conducted in December, Biden received 49 percent approval. And, among those who disapprove of his performance, 56% believe he did nothing in his first year that they approve of.
Meanwhile, a majority of Democrats oppose Joe Biden running for re-election in 2024, with only 48% supporting the idea. This is unprecedented after only one year.
There are two more significant figures to consider: Less than seven out of ten Black voters (69 percent) support the 46th president. This is significant because he received support from more than 9-in-10 Black voters (92 percent) in 2020.
So, in a relatively short period of time, we’ve seen a nearly 25-point drop. Inflation is clearly a factor here, with the Wall Street Journal estimating that higher food prices cost families an extra $276 per month, or about $3,300 per year. Many low- and middle-income families, single mothers, and individuals simply cannot afford it while living paycheck to paycheck.
It’s worth repeating: Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential nomination because he wasn’t Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and he won the general election because he wasn’t Donald Trump. However, his handlers believed he had a large mandate to be the next FDR, to radically change the country by expanding government in unprecedented ways. Trillions of dollars in new spending have already been enacted. More trillions were proposed through Build Back Better, with the administration claiming that such spending would reduce inflation and the deficit, which makes no sense.
Sensible Americans, including two key members of Biden’s own party, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WVa.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), voted down the radical proposal. Finally, many voters, some of whom were suffering from Trump fatigue as a result of the White House’s nonstop drama, desired a return to normalcy rather than a leap to a socialist America.
And now we have an administration that looks like a rudderless ship at sea, seemingly without a port.
“I don’t think he has lived up to a lot of the campaign promises that he made, especially given the role of Black voters in helping him become president of the United States,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a civil rights attorney and activist who is also the former president of the NAACP’s Minneapolis chapter.
Biden made “voting rights” (really just a federal takeover of elections) his priority starting in 2022, cranking up the hyperbole machine during a widely panned speech in Georgia.
Al Sharpton, civil rights activist and MSNBC host, stated that the speech was not intended to gain the support of those who oppose or are undecided about the proposed legislation. “In this case, dealing with my friend and brother Joe, if he was trying to get votes, it wasn’t the vote-getting speech,” Sharpton said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
The vote would be defeated in the Senate by a vote of 48-52.
Black Americans had a difficult 2021, especially with COVID-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they had a 2.5 times greater chance of dying from the virus than whites (CDC). The black unemployment rate is 6.9 percent, which is more than twice as high as the white unemployment rate. And crime continues to disproportionately affect cities, with 16 cities setting homicide records in 2021.
The midterms are only 270 days away. Democrats’ razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives will almost certainly be lost. Republicans only need a net gain of one seat to retake the Senate. For the first time in the RealClearPolitics average, the president’s overall approval rating is in the 30s.
Most independents, as well as Republican voters, oppose him. What should concern Democrats the most is the erosion of support among Black voters, who are increasingly feeling buyer’s remorse about Biden.
