Still under water: Joe Biden approval numbers remain low, marginally impacting Harris

The majority of voters disapprove of how President Joe Biden is handling his job and the economy, even as Vice President Kamala Harris’ momentum holds steady in the presidential race.

The Center Square Voters' Voice poll, conducted Oct. 2-4 with Noble Predictive Insights and released Wednesday, shows that 53% of likely voters disapprove of Biden’s job as president and 46% approve. On Biden’s handling of the economy, 54% disapprove and only 44% approve.

The sample included 2,560 respondents comprised of 1,135 Republicans, 1,162 Democrats, and 263 non-leaning Independents.

Only 9% of Republicans interviewed approved of Biden’s handling of the presidency, versus 86% of Democrats and 38% of non-leaning Independents.

Of the 1,233 women surveyed, 49% approve and 50% disapprove of Biden’s job, while only 43% of the 1,057 men surveyed approve and 56% disapprove.

Broken down by ethnicity, Biden draws his highest support from minorities, with 75% of Blacks and 56% of Hispanics satisfied with his overall performance as president. Roughly 40% of whites approve, and 39% of those who responded as “other.”

Those with college degrees leaned more in favor of Biden in the poll with 55% approving, while non-college educated respondents were less supportive at only 40% approval.

While urban residents continue to support Biden more than people in suburban or rural areas, the disparity is less stark than usual, with barely over half of urbanites viewing the current president’s performance favorably, compared to 46% of suburban and 38% of rural voters.

The results come as the same polling shows Harris maintains a slight lead nationally over Republican nominee former president Donald Trump.

David Byler, head of research at Noble Predictive Insights, told The Center Square that there is a “fuzzy correlation” between voters’ opinions of Biden’s presidency and their opinions of Harris’ policies.

“There's been a lot of discontentment about Biden's handling of the situation at the border. Harris has had a significant role in immigration policy during the Biden administration, and Trump beats Harris on immigration in our poll. It's not hard to draw a dotted line between those things,” Byler said. “People believe that Harris is her own person, but they're also aware that she's been vice president for four years and bears some responsibility.”

But Biden’s age is probably one of the biggest issues dragging him down in the polls, Byler added, a problem that Harris does not have to deal with.

“Voters don't hold Harris responsible for Biden's age. And that's one of the reasons why his approval rating is low, is that in poll after poll, a lot of voters have expressed a lack of confidence in his ability to perform well in the job given his age,” Byler said. “And so you see kind of a muted effect of Biden's approval rating on Harris because some of the qualities, like his age, don't reflect on her, but some of ... the policies partially do.”

Biden’s approval numbers dipped slightly across the board when poll respondents were asked to rate his handling of the economy, with 44% approving and 54% disapproving in total.

The gender gap, though smaller, still persists in views of Biden’s economic record, with 46% of women approving compared to 42% of men approving.

Numbers by ethnicity, political affiliation, and higher education barely change, with percentages either staying the same or dropping by a couple percentage points in each category.

Biden’s approval ratings on the economy remain the same as on his overall job in urban areas with 53% support. But suburban approval drops to 43% and rural support to 36%.

The poll is one of only six national tracking polls in the United States. The margin of error in the poll was +/-2.1% for likely voters.