Biden’s approval rating drops in poll ahead of midterms
Updated 7:40 pm, Thursday, November 14, 2016
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US Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden appears during a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Associated Press)
US Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden appears during a campaign stop in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2016. (Associated Press)
Photo: Associated Press
Biden’s approval rating drops in poll ahead of midterms
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WASHINGTON — Joe Biden’s approval rating in his home state of Delaware is hovering around 35 percent, according to a new survey of voters there. That drop is significant, coming as Biden is facing a crowded field of 2020 Democratic candidates, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kamala Harris of California and Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind. The last time the former vice president was at this stage of the race was in 2015, when he dropped to 40 percent approval.
The survey was conducted Wednesday through Thursday and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. The results were released Thursday by Morning Consult, a Democratic pollster.
The poll shows that Biden’s approval rating in the Blue State is his lowest among the states that will either vote in Tuesday’s presidential election or that will determine the results of that election regardless. In 2016, his approval rating was 40 percent in Delaware. That was the highest approval rating he had received on the campaign trail.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is holding a town hall event in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2016. (Carlo Allegri/The Daily Times via AP)
It’s not exactly clear why Biden is not doing well among Democratic voters in Delaware. According to the Morning Consult survey, Biden’s approval rating among independents in that state is 31 percent. According to Morning Consult’s analysis, the top reasons given for the drop among all voters in Delaware were his failure to distinguish himself as the candidate of change (48 percent) and his response to the controversy over his role in a Ukraine power-sharing agreement with his son Hunter Biden.
The Morning Consult survey