Fifty-Seven Percent of Voters Approve of Biden in His First Week as President
By Isa Alomran and Ethan Winter
A January, 2021 survey fielded just after Inauguration Day by Data for Progress finds that 57 percent of Americans approve of President Biden’s performance as president––including 93 percent of self-identified Democrats, 42 percent of Independents, and 24 percent of Republicans.
On net, Biden’s job approval rating sits at plus 21 percentage points (57 percent support, 36 percent oppose). Democrats approve of Biden by a 90-point margin (93 percent approve, three percent disapprove). While, on net, Independents / Third Party voters disapprove of the president by a five-point margin, 43 percent still say they approve of the job Biden is doing. Republicans, meanwhile, disapprove of Biden by a 43-point margin (24 percent approve, 67 percent disapprove). Additionally, looking at approval along the 2020 presidential vote, we find that Biden’s 2020 voter base approves of his performance by a 91-point margin (93 percent approve, two percent disapprove). In contrast, looking at Trump 2020 voters we find that they disapprove of Biden by a margin of 52 points (19 percent approve, 71 percent disapprove).
These findings from Data for Progress are in line with results from other polling outfits, all which point to good news for the Biden administration. These other polls include one by Morning Consult which finds that 56 percent of voters approve of the president. A Hill-HarrisX poll, meanwhile, had Biden’s approval at 63 percent. Lastly, FiveThirtyEight’s tracker has Biden at 54 percent approve and 35 percent disapprove.
Focusing in on one finding in particular, while two-thirds of Republicans disapprove of Biden, almost a quarter of Republicans actually approve of the job he's doing as president. Putting this into context, this 24 percent figure is actually roughly in line with the number of Republicans who disapproved of the job that Trump was doing and wanted to see him impeached, which stood at 17 percent of his own 2020 voter base following the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. This is more evidence of a growing fissure between ardent Trump supporters and more moderate Republicans.
Still, it remains that President Biden enjoys a high level of approval among American voters, especially when compared to the former president’s during the same period. A Gallup poll published during Trump’s first week in office in 2017 found that only 45 percent of Americans approved of his performance, while 45 percent disapproved of his job as president.
Biden’s popularity may be explained, in part, by the flurry of progressive executive actions he has issued to date. These include rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement and restarting the DACA program. Our polling, in partnership with Vox, finds that many measures enjoy high levels of support from likely voters. Perry Bacon Jr. picks up this line of argumentation in FiveThirtyEight. Bacon Jr. notes that, In sharp contrast to Trump, Biden has backed popular policies that fit nicely with his work to unify the country.
Biden’s high approval ratings in his first week in office offer evidence that American voters support his agenda on multiple fronts––including that of strong action on climate and swift response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Isa Alomran is an intern at Data for Progress.
Ethan Winter (@EthanBWinter) is a senior analyst at Data for Progress. You can email him at ethan@dataforprogress.org.
Methodology
From January 22 to January 25, 2021, Data for Progress conducted a survey of 1164 likely voters nationally using web panel respondents. The sample was weighted to be representative of likely voters by age, gender, education, race, and voting history. The survey was conducted in English. The margin of error is ±2.9 percentage points.
Question Wording
Do you approve or disapprove of the job that President Biden is doing as President?
Strongly approve
Somewhat approve
Somewhat disapprove
Strongly disapprove
Not sure