Biden approval slips to new low in wake of 2024 campaign launch: survey

President Biden’s approval rating has dipped to a new low in a poll taken in the wake of his 2024 reelection bid announcement. 

The Washington Post-ABC News survey found the president’s approval rating fell 6 percentage points between February and May, with the share of those who say they approve of the way Biden’s handling his job dropping from 42 to 36 percent. Fifty-six percent of respondents in the new poll disapprove. 

The same share of Americans — 18 percent — still “strongly approve” of the president’s work compared to February, but the share of those who “strongly disapprove” went up to 47 percent. 

Asked to choose between Biden and former President Trump on who they think did a better job of handling the economy, 54 percent of respondents said Trump and 36 percent said Biden “so far.” Another 7 percent said neither.

Biden announced his much-anticipated campaign for another four years in the White House last month, joining Trump in the race and teeing up what could be a 2020 presidential race rematch. 

Already the country’s oldest sitting president, Biden made his announcement amid concerns about his age. His brief campaign launch video played clips from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and warned against “MAGA extremists,” pitching the sitting president as the leader in the “battle for the soul of America.” 

Thirty-six percent of Democratic of Democratic-leaning respondents in the survey released Sunday said they’d prefer Biden get the party's nomination — up 5 points from February — while 58 percent said they'd prefer the party nominate someone else.

In a hypothetical Trump-Biden rematch, 44 percent say they’d lean toward the former president while 38 percent say they’d lean toward Biden. 

Conducted April 28 to May 3, the poll surveyed 1,006 U.S. adults and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points. For the subgroup of 900 registered voters, the margin was 4 percentage points.