Polling figures from Gallup released on Tuesday (September 20) show President Joe Biden is at the level Ronald Reagan was when he headed into his first midterm as President.
The poll shows that 42 percent of U.S. adults approve of Biden’s job as President, a two percentage point decrease from August’s 44 percent approval rating. Despite the decline, Biden’s approval rating is still up from his all-time low of 38 percent in July.
Biden’s 42 percent approval rating in the September of a midterm election mimics former Presidents Reagan in 1982 and Bill Clinton in 1994.
Biden’s approval rating is two points higher than former President Donald Trump’s was before the midterms, but three percentage points lower than former President Barack Obama’s was in September 2010.
Following his first midterm, Reagan’s approval rating would drop to as low as 35 percent after the first midterms but climbed to the mid-50s in the latter part of 1983 before reaching the 60s in 1986.
Biden’s approval rating is on par with most presidents in recent years, with the only notable exceptions being George Bush Sr.’s 73 percent approval rating in 1990 following the United States’ response to Iraq’s attack on Kuwait and in September 2002, former President George W. Bush recorded an approval rating of 67 percent.
Although Biden’s approval rating has rebounded, it’s still a far cry from the low- to mid-fifties he enjoyed at the start of his Presidency.
Whether Biden’s approval rating will improve so that it has any significant impact on midterm results remains to be seen.
