US voters top priorities

Despite Biden’s name recognition, visibility as the incumbent president and an impressive legislative record, his job approval rating since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has remained under water. In late 2023 polls, he trailed Trump in voter backing, notably in vital swing states where his ‘Bidenomics’, i.e. Biden’s mantra of growing the economy ‘from the middle out and the bottom up’, appears to lack buy-in as an alternative to the Republican ‘trickle down economics’. As most voters’ top priorities are perceived high inflation, food and energy prices and mortgage rates (see Figure 3), their long-standing perception of the Republican Party as dealing better with the economy creates an uphill battle for Democrats. The same is true of illegal immigration, one of the most divisive security-related election topics, which has steeply increased on Biden’s watch, after Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy was dismantled. Biden has spearheaded student debt relief initiatives, and bills on gun safety and on large-scale infrastructure investment, lowering healthcare costs, but voter recognition has been marginal. However, abortion rights in a post Roe v. Wade world continue to galvanise voters, as the 2023 state elections showed, irrespective of Biden’s low polling. Biden’s lack of popularity may come as a surprise to Europeans, as 55 % of them approve of his handling of foreign policy, which traditionally is lowest on US voters’ minds, and perceive him in comparison with other global leaders. On the Global leader approval rating tracker, he ranks eighth.