Joe Biden’s approval among black Americans has declined: poll

Joe Biden’s popularity among black voters, a key part of his base, has taken a beating since spring of 2021, a new poll revealed Saturday.

While African Americans still support the president at a much higher rate than the population as a whole, a Washington Post-Ipsos survey found that 7 in 10 black Americans approve of President Biden’s job performance — down 8% from the 78% approval rating recorded in April 2021.

Fewer than one quarter in the demographic group — 23% — “strongly approve” of the Democratic president, 47% “somewhat” approve, while 28% disapprove, including 9% who do so “strongly,” according to the poll.

Asked if Biden is “sympathetic to the problems of Black people in this country,” 66% of respondents replied yes — down 8% from the 74% who said yes to the same question in June 2020, the poll discovered. Thirty-two percent said no in the 2022 poll, compared to 23% who did so in 2020, the Washington Post survey found.

Still, about 90% of black voters would support a Democratic House candidate if the November midterm general elections were held today, according to the survey.

The online poll — which had a sample size of 1,248 non-Hispanic black Americans and was conducted from April 21 to May 2 — also showed that just 60% of black voters 39 and younger approve of Biden’s job performance.

The poll’s margin of error was 3.5%.

But among black voters 65 and older, the commander-in-chief’s approval rating stands at a much higher 86%.

Stacy Mumford, a school nutritionist who is black, thinks Biden had failed to follow through on many of his campaign pledges, according to the Washington Post.

“He’s not really holding up to his end of the bargain,” Mumford — a 49-year-old Georgia resident — told the newspaper in a story published Saturday.

“Some things he’s promised. Some things he’s done,” she added. “But we are still struggling as a whole. We are all still struggling.”

Overall, African Americans appear to be unimpressed by Biden’s handling of the legal system.

More than 20% of black Americans believe Biden has done “a great deal” or “a good amount” to reduce discrimination in the criminal justice system, while 76% say he has done “little” or “nothing,” the survey showed.

Black voters are not the only part of the Democratic constituency who have been disappointed with the president.

A Quinnipiac University survey published in May found that three-fifths of US Latinos disapprove of Biden’s performance. At this point last year, a similar survey conducted by Quinnipiac found that 55% of Latino voters approved of Biden while only 29% disapproved.

Recently declining warm feelings toward Biden among non-white voters comes as his overall approval rating was recorded late last month at 44% amid sky-high gas prices, inflation and the baby formula shortage.