Joe Biden's Approval Rating Among Independents Is Alarming for Democrats
President Joe Biden's approval rating among independent voters may be alarming for Democrats now that the president has formally launched his White House re-election bid.
A number of polls this month show that Biden is underwater when it comes to independent voters - a key voting bloc that the president won by a wide margin in 2020.
Biden may be facing a rematch against former President Donald Trump next year as the Republican seeks his own party's presidential nomination and voters who are neither Democrats nor Republicans could prove crucial.
Four recent polls show Biden struggling among independent voters despite winning 52 percent support from independents and others in 2020, compared to 43 percent who backed Trump.
A Fox News poll conducted among 1,004 registered voters from April 21 to 24 showed that just 37 percent of independents approved of the job Biden was doing, while 62 percent disapproved.
It was a similar picture in a CAPS-Harris poll carried out from April 18 to 19, which surveyed 1,845 registered voters. That survey found that Biden had a net approval of 38 percent among independents and a net disapproval of 58 percent.
In a CBS News poll from April 21 to 24, Biden's approval among independent voters was just 32 percent, while 68 percent of those voters said they disapproved of the president. The overall poll was conducted among 2,093 U.S. adults.
An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll conducted from April 17 to 19 among 1,176 registered voters found that Biden's approval among independents was just 36 percent, while 52 percent of that group disapproved of him.
An earlier NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll carried out from March 20 to 23 found that the economy was the leading issue among independents, with 33 percent saying it was the most important issue facing the country.
Twenty-two percent of independents said preserving democracy was the most important issue, 11 percent said immigration, and 10 percent said healthcare.
Biden won significantly more support among independents and those who belong to third parties than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had in 2016, according to analysis from Pew Research.
In 2016, Clinton won 42 percent of independents/others, while Trump won 43 percent. Support for Biden among independents was 10 points higher than their support for Clinton.
Biden and Trump enjoyed similar levels of loyalty among voters of their own party, with 92 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents backing Trump and 94 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents supporting Biden.
Independents were also crucial in deciding the outcome of the 2022 midterm elections, according to the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy at the University of Notre Dame.
Matthew Hall, director of the Rooney Center, pointed to partisan loyalty in a statement about independents' role in the midterms, saying: "In today's highly polarized environment, voters are very loyal to their preferred political party. As a result, elections are almost entirely determined by voter turnout and independent voters."
Newsweek has reached out to the Biden campaign via email for comment.
