Rating President Biden on the Issues

President Joe Biden claims credit for record job creation, but most voters believe the economy has gotten worse.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 37% of Likely U.S. Voters rate Biden good or excellent on his handling of the economy – down from 42% in April – while a majority (51%) give him a poor rating. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The White House has made “Bidenomics” the centerpiece of its message, with Biden boasting about workforce participation statistics last week in Philadelphia: “And, folks, it’s not an accident; it’s my economic plan in action. It’s Bidenomics.”

However, only 29% of voters believe the U.S. economy has gotten better in the past year, while 56% think it’s gotten worse, and 13% say the economy has stayed about the same.

Ninety-three percent (93%) believe economic issues will be important in the 2024 presidential election, including 71% who expect the economy to be Very Important.

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The survey of 1,031 U.S. Likely Voters was conducted on July 18-20, 2023 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Fewer Democrats (66%) than Republicans (76%) or voters not affiliated with either major party (70%) expect economic issues will be Very Important in the 2024 presidential election.

Fifty percent (50%) of Democrats believe the U.S. economy has gotten better in the past year, but only 15% of Republicans and 21% of unaffiliated voters share that belief. Seventy-five percent (75%) of Republicans, 33% of Democrats and 62% of unaffiliated voters think the economy has gotten worse in the past year.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Democrats rate Biden good or excellent on his handling of the economy, an assessment with which only 15% of Republicans and 26% of unaffiliated voters agree. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Republicans and 60% of unaffiliated voters give Biden a poor rating on the economy, as do 18% of Democrats.

Women voters (61%) are more likely than men (51%) to say the economy has gotten worse in the past year.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of whites, 50% of black voters and 35% of other minorities rate Biden good or excellent on his handling of the economy. Fifty-six percent (56%) of whites, 49% of black voters and 61% of other minorities believe the economy has gotten worse in the past year.

Voters under 40 are less likely than their elders to give Biden a poor rating for his handling of the economy, but majorities of every age category say the economy has worsened in the past year.

Breaking down the electorate by income categories, 64% of those in the highest bracket – earning more than $200,000 a year – rate Biden good or excellent on his handling of the economy, but just 27% of those with annual incomes below $30,000 agree in that assessment.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of voters who think the economy has gotten worse in the past year say economic issues will be Very Important in the 2024 presidential election, as do 86% of those who rate Biden’s handling of the economy as poor.

Of the top four figures in the U.S. House and Senate, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is viewed most favorably by voters.

Republican voters overwhelmingly favor former President Donald Trump as their party’s nominee in next year’s primaries. 

Additional information from this survey and a full demographic breakdown are available to Platinum Members only.

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