President Joe Biden has endured one of the toughest first years as a president in recent memory. President Biden looks to turn over a new leaf in 2022. With so many fires to put out and no effective strategies to tackle inflation, Covid-19, and get his agenda passed, Biden could suffer humiliating defeats in the 2022 Congressional midterm.
In line with these situations, we posed the question to surveyed likely voters: "has President Biden made your life better or worse off?" As bad as things are going for Biden, only a plurality (44%) said they were their lives were worse off, while only 30% said better off and 27% stated the same. This is not good for Democrats going into the 2022 midterm elections. Like Republicans four years ago when Donald Trump was president, the Democrats may need to distance themselves from the President to have a chance of keeping the House or Senate.
Only one age group, 30-49-year-old likely voters (43% better off/33% worse off/24% the same), felt their lives were better off under Biden. The rest of the age groups, including the youngest voters aged 18-29 (29% better off/37% worse off/35% the same) and the oldest voters aged 65+ (21% better off/55% worse off/24% the same) felt that their lives were worse off under Biden, though with distinct levels of intensity.
When it came to political affiliation, a majority of Democrats (58% better off/11% worse off/31% the same) felt their lives were better off during Biden's first year in office, while an overwhelming majority of Republicans (12% better off/73% worse off/15% the same) and half of Independents (14% better off/49% worse off/38% the same) did not feel life was better because of President Biden.
Regionally, voters in the Central/Great Lakes (24% better off/50% worse off/26% the same) and Southern (28% better off/46% worse off/25% the same) regions were much more likely to think their lives were worse because of President Biden than voters in the East (35% better off/37% worse off/28% the same) and West (34% better off/38% worse off/28% the same) regions. Still, a plurality of voters in all regions thought their lives were worse off.
Among surveyed minorities, most African Americans (41%) thought their lives were the same, while a third thought they were better off, and a quarter thought their lives were worse off. White (29% better off/49% worse off/22% the same) and Hispanic voters (32% better off/37% worse off/30% the same) did not view life as better because of Biden, albeit on different levels. This is worrisome for Democrats going into the 2022 midterm elections because African Americans and Hispanics are key parts of the president's base.
Where voters lived also made a difference in their perceptions of quality of life since Biden took office. Only urban voters in large cities (52% better off/22% worse off/26% the same) thought life was better off under Joe Biden. Meanwhile more voters surveyed in medium sized cities (33% better off/40% worse off/27% the same), small sized cities (19% better off/54% worse off/27% the same), suburban (21% better off/49% worse off/30% the same) and rural areas (18% better off/61% worse off/21% the same) thought life was worse off under President Biden.
Important swing voters, such as suburban females were less sanguine about the quality of life since President Biden took office one year ago (20% better off/43% worse off/38% the same) compared to urban females (35 better off/35% worse off/30% the same).
Generationally, only Millennials (43% better off/31% worse off/27% the same) thought life was better, while Generation Z (25% better off/38% worse off/37% the same), Gen Xers (29% better off/44% worse off/27% the same), and Baby Boomers (22% better off/55% worse off/23% the same) were all more likely to think their quality of life was worse off under President Biden.
Conclusion:
While Biden has touted his successes, such as, millions of new jobs created, hundreds of millions of vaccinated Americans, and trillions of dollars of stimulus distributed, there are many more failures: over eight-hundred thousand deaths due to Covid-19, not getting the pandemic under control, surging inflation, the disastrous withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan, and not being able to pass his agenda, while his party controls Congress. Because of these factors more voters feel that life has not gotten better in his first year as president. Despite the president's lofty campaign promises from "build back better" to uniting a fractured country, Biden has not fulfilled the things he promised on the campaign trail. With a humiliating loss for Congressional Democrats looming in the 2022 midterm elections, President Biden has little time to turn things around. If he does not have a Hail Mary pass or prayer, he might be a lame duck after 2022.
With President Biden having a difficult first year in office, or at least as hectic and stormy as Donald Trump's first year (albeit, Biden does not have the media beating him up every day) the president has not delivered on his campaign promises. The biggest promise he made was ending the pandemic, which was a fanciful promise at the very least.
We posed the question to U.S. likely voters if they thought the president had "delivered on his campaign promises" or was he "lying to just get elected." Almost half (46%) thought Biden was "lying to just get elected," while 38% felt he "delivered on campaign promises," and 16% were not sure. Not the world beater numbers a newly elected president would hope for.
Regionally, voters were much more likely to say President Biden was lying in the Central/Great Lakes (36% delivered on promises/51% lying to get elected) and Southern regions (36% delivered on promises/49% lying to get elected), while voters in the East (42% delivered on promises/38% lying to get elected) were slightly more likely to say he "delivered on his promises." Votes in the West (40% delivered/42% lying to get elected) were evenly split.
Voters were split along party lines on whether the President lied or delivered on campaign promises with almost equal intensity. Democrats (68% delivered on promises/13% lying to get elected) thought the president "delivered on his campaign promises," while Republicans (16% delivered on promises/74% lying to get elected) were defiant and thought Biden lied. A majority of swing voters, such as, Independents (26% delivered on promises/53% lying to get elected) were more prone to say Biden "lied to just get elected."
Education also played a part in how voters viewed President Biden's first year in office. A majority (30% delivered on promises/52% lying to get elected) of voters without college degrees thought Biden "lied to get elected," while nearly half of voters with college degrees (49% delivered on promises/36% lying to get elected) thought he "delivered on his campaign promises."
Only, voters in the 30-49 age group (48% delivered on promises/38% lying to get elected) thought President Biden "delivered on his campaign promises," while the youngest voters aged 18-29 (38% delivered on promises/45% lying to get elected) and the oldest voters aged 65+ (32% delivered on promises/52% lying to get elected) thought Biden was "lying to just get elected." The same went for the different generations of surveyed voters; nearly half of Millennials (48% delivered on promises/38% lying to get elected) thought Biden "delivered on his campaign promises," while Generation Z (37% delivered on promises/44% lying to get elected), Gen Xers (37%delivered on promises/45% lying to get elected), and Baby Boomers (31% delivered on promises/55% lying to get elected) thought the president was lying.
Not helping Biden's case were important swing voters, such as, suburban voters (27% delivered on promises/52% lying to get elected) and suburban women (25% delivered on promises /50% lying to get elected) who were both more likely to think President Biden was "lying about campaign promises to just get elected."
Conclusion:
While President Biden thinks his first year in office has been a success, the reality of his dire situation is we still live in Covid chaos, runaway inflation is getting worse, and the U.S. is losing ground in Ukraine to Russia, with Russian troop amassing at the Ukrainian Border, with the intention of invading Ukraine.
There are more Democrats abandoning ship and calling for the president not to run in 2024. Things are so bad for the Democrats right now; you are starting to see Bill and Hillary Clinton reappear in public. Imagine, Democrats trotting out Hillary as the change candidate in 2024! That could make Donald Trump look appealing to swing voters!
###
Zogby Analytics Poll Methodology
US Likely Voters
12/21/21 - 12/22/21
Zogby Analytics conducted an online survey of 1311 likely voters in the US.
Using internal and trusted interactive partner resources, thousands of adults were randomly invited to participate in this interactive survey. Each invitation is password coded and secure so that one respondent can only access the survey one time.
Using information based on census data, voter registration figures, CIA fact books and exit polls, we use complex weighting techniques to best represent the demographics of the population being surveyed. Weighted variables may include age, race, gender, region, party, education, and religion. The party breakdown for this survey is as follows: 38% Democrat, 38% Republican and 24% Independent/unaffiliated.
Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for 1311 is +/- 2.7 percentage points. This means that all other things being equal, the identical survey repeated will have results within the margin of error 95 times out of 100.
Subsets of the data have a larger margin of error than the whole data set. As a rule we do not rely on the validity of very small subsets of the data especially sets smaller than 50-75 respondents. At that subset we can make estimations based on the data, but in these cases the data is more qualitative than quantitative.
Additional factors can create error, such as question wording and question order.
###
About Zogby Analytics:
Zogby Analytics is respected nationally and internationally for its opinion research capabilities. Since 1984, Zogby has empowered clients with powerful information and knowledge critical for making informed strategic decisions.
The firm conducts multi-phased opinion research engagements for banking and financial services institutions, insurance companies, hospitals and medical centers, retailers and developers, religious institutions, cultural organizations, colleges and universities, IT companies and Federal agencies. Zogby's dedication and commitment to excellence and accuracy are reflected in its state-of-the-art opinion research capabilities and objective analysis and consultation.