Jewish approval of Biden drops from 80 to 63 percent

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The good news for Joe Biden is that a majority of U.S. Jews approve of the job he is doing. The bad news is that the number in a new poll, 63 percent, is a sharp double-digit drop from where he was last year.

A poll released Wednesday by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a group led by prominent Jewish Democrats, showed Biden’s approval rating down from 80 percent in a poll by the same organization last July. His disapproval rating this year is at 37 percent, up from 20 percent last July.

Both polls were carried out by GBAO Strategies. The Jewish Electorate Institute put a positive spin on the numbers. “Jewish Americans continue to support President Biden and the Democratic Party at levels higher than the general American voting population, a trend that appears on track to continue in this year’s midterm elections and in the future,” said the group’s chairman, Martin Frost, a former Jewish Democratic congressman from Texas.

Biden’s approval numbers generally have dropped precipitously in the last year, a result of a botched exit from Afghanistan, a persistent pandemic and inflation that his government can’t stem. His approval rating generally is hovering at 42 percent, the lowest of his presidency. Jewish voters generally favor Democrats.

One area Biden scores well among Jews is in his handling of Russia’s war against Ukraine, with 72 percent approving.

Support for Democrats on a generic congressional ballot also dropped from 68 percent to 61 percent while support for Republicans rose from 21 percent to 26 percent. Both parties are already campaigning heavily in Jewish communities where shifts in the vote can change the make-up of Congress, where Democrats have a thin majority.

The pollsters reached 800 registered Jewish voters via text from March 28-April 3 and the margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.