The share of voters who say they are falling behind financially increased 15 percentage points during Biden’s term
President Biden leaves office with negative job and personal ratings, as voters continue to give the economy bad marks – and say the White House failed to make improvements.
A new Fox News survey shows almost twice as many think the Biden administration has made the economy worse rather than better, 52% vs. 28%. Plus, nearly all voters, 89%, say they are either extremely or very concerned about inflation -- up from 83% early in his term (2021).
Overall, 70% say the economy is in bad shape. While that’s better than the high during Biden’s term of 84% who rated it negatively in July 2022, it’s also back to where things stood at the start of his presidency when 69% said the same.
"Despite presiding over the strongest post-pandemic economic recovery in the world and making historic investments in infrastructure that will produce millions of new jobs over the next decade, voters clearly judged Biden’s efforts on the economy as counterproductive," says Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, whose firm Beacon Research conducts Fox News surveys along with Republican Daron Shaw. "Time will tell if history judges him differently."
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Only 13% of voters say they are getting ahead financially. Three times that many, 42%, feel they are falling behind – and that’s up 15 points from 27% who felt that way nearly four years ago.
Part of that increase is driven by Democrats, who are twice as likely to say they are falling behind today: 38% vs. 19% in June 2021.
And nearly 6 in 10 Democrats agree with 8 in 10 Republicans and 7 in 10 independents that the economy is in only fair or poor condition.
"If elections are mostly about how voters think the incumbent party handled the economy, it’s easy to see why the Democrats lost the 2024 election," says Shaw. "Unfortunately for Biden, he continues to be ineffective at making the case that his policies have improved the bottom-line, even among his base."
As Biden departs, 42% of voters approve of his job performance – just 2 percentage points above his record low.
Approval of Biden is lower than Barack Obama (57%) and Bill Clinton (62%) at the end of their presidencies, but higher than George W. Bush (34%). Some 47% approved of Donald Trump at the end of his first term.
Biden’s highest approval, 56%, came six months into his presidency (June 2021). His lowest, 40% approval, came at three points during his term (July 2022, Nov. 2023, and Oct. 2024).
The average job rating for his entire presidency stands at 44% approve vs. 55% disapprove.
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Eighty percent of Democrats approve of Biden as he leaves, as do 35% of independents and 9% of Republicans. For comparison, at the 100-day mark of his presidency, 95% of Democrats approved, as did 42% of independents and 14% of Republicans.
Views on Biden as a person are the reverse of what they were when he was elected. At the end of 2020, some 59% of voters had a favorable opinion of him, while 39% had an unfavorable opinion. The final read shows 40% view him favorably and 59% unfavorably.
That makes him less popular than Trump at end of his first term (45% favorable, 54% unfavorable), and Obama (60-39%), Bush (49-46%), and Clinton (48-46%) at the end of their time in office.
Trump’s current favorable rating tells the story of the moment: a record 50% of voters have a positive view of him, and 50% view him negatively.
Conducted January 10-13, 2025 under the direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R), this Fox News survey includes interviews with a sample of 922 registered voters randomly selected from a national voter file. Respondents spoke with live interviewers on landlines (114) and cellphones (638) or completed the survey online after receiving a text (170). Results based on the full sample have a margin of sampling error of ±3 percentage points. Sampling error associated with results among subgroup is higher. In addition to sampling error, question wording and order can influence results. Weights are generally applied to age, race, education, and area variables to ensure the demographics of respondents are representative of the registered voter population. Sources for developing weight targets include the American Community Survey, Fox News Voter Analysis, and voter file data.
Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report.
As head of the polling unit, Dana Blanton runs the Fox News Poll and oversees the Fox News Voter Analysis election survey.
