Biden approval rating on Main Street rises for first time in presidency
Published Fri, Dec 9 20229:04 AM ESTUpdated 2 Hours Ago
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Eric Rosenbaum
@erprose
President Joe Biden’s approval rating from small business owners increased for the first time during his presidency, according to the CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for Q4 2022.
Many national polls have captured a rise in approval or favorability ratings since August, as gasoline prices declined, Biden had a few key legislative wins, and inflation slowed.
The midterm election performance of Democrats is less clear as a contributing factor.
The positive news for Biden comes weeks after Donald Trump said he will be seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024.
It may not have increased by much, and it’s rising from an all-time low, but for the first time during his presidency, Joe Biden’s approval rating on Main Street has gone up.
After washing out at an approval rating among small business owners of 31% during the third quarter of 2022, when inflation hit its peak, Biden’s approval rating increased to 34% in the fourth-quarter poll conducted by CNBC and SurveyMonkey. It’s the first time across the eight quarters of his presidency there has been any rise in the quarterly poll and stopped a streak of six straight quarterly declines.
That’s a sign of Biden’s political strength after the midterm elections, but those elections may not be the only, or even best, explanation for the reversal in this trend.
Across multiple national polls of the public, Biden’s approval has been gaining since August after reaching a summer low point, when gas prices began to decline and the president accomplished key legislative achievements that had stalled earlier in his term, including the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS Act to spur domestic manufacturing. Gas prices hit their lowest level in over a year this week.
The CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for Q4 2022 was conducted Nov. 9-Nov. 16 among nearly 2,600 small business owners. The last time CNBC polled small business owners was in late July, right before several national polls began to show a modest rise in Biden’s approval ratings, and in particular, small gains made by the president among Democrats.
In the CNBC|SurveyMonkey poll, Biden’s approval rating ticked up slightly among Democrats and independents — 83% of Democrats and 31% of independents approve of Biden this quarter, compared with 81% of Democrats and 29% of independents last quarter.
Biden’s approval rating remains heavily partisan: Just 8% of small business owners who are Republican approve of Biden.
Among the general public — the CNBC|SurveyMonkey poll includes a parallel sample of more than 11,000 Americans who do not own businesses — 45% approve of Biden. That’s up slightly from last quarter (41%) but still down sharply from the all-time high approval rating set in the first quarter of his presidency (59%).
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https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/09/bidens-approval-rating-on-main-street-rises-for-first-time.html
