Biden's approval rating jumps to its highest level since August

Joe Biden is experiencing a resurgence in popularity and his approval rating has climbed to its highest level since August according to a new poll from Gallup. But what's got the country backing the president again and will he be able to sustain his rating?

Biden's approval among voting adults climbed four points between May and June according to a new Gallup survey that found the president had a 43% approval rating, and while that's an improvement, it still doesn't match the numbers he had when he took office.

"It’s the highest rating since last August but still below the approval in the upper 50s recorded at the start of his time in the White House," wrote The Hill's Julia Mueller. "Fifty-four percent of U.S. adults overall disapprove of Biden’s job performance."

Biden hit his lowest approval numbers back in April when just 37% of the country approved of his performance as president according to Mueller, numbers the president faced just before he the Democrats had a good showing in the midterm elections.

"Biden’s improved job rating is owed mostly to independents, whose approval grew from 33% in May to 41% now. This is the highest approval rating independents have given Biden since August 2021," wrote Gallup's Megan Brenan.

Biden's approval rating slipped into the low 40s in April according to analysis from FiveThirtyEight on several polls regarding the President's popularity conducted between March 31st and April 20th.

Only 42.4% of Americans approved of the job Biden was doing while 52.9% disapprove of what the President and his administration had accomplished at the time.

Politico's Steven Sheppard noted that Biden's numbers were "only 1 point higher than Trump’s FiveThirtyEight approval rating on April 15, 2019, at the same point in his one-term presidency."

The report of Biden's slumping approval rating in April came just two months after it looked like the President's fortunes were on the rise. Polls in February were showing his meteoric rise after Biden's approval rating reached an all-time low.

Biden saw a major revival of his approval rating in February while his presumptive 2024 Republican presidential opponent Donald Trump suffered one of his biggest popularity slips in years.

In a poll sponsored by NPR and PBS News Hour, Marist Poll surveyed 1352 American adults just after the State of the Union address between February 13th and February 16th and found that Biden had an overall approval rating of 46%. 

“That's good news for the president,” wrote NPR’s Domenico Montanaro. “The 46% is his highest mark since March of last year.”

Biden hasn’t been able to break above his 49% pre-Afghanistan withdrawal numbers according to Montanaro but Biden's February rating was the highest the president had seen since his staggering all-time low approval earlier last year. 

“He bottomed out at 36% in July of last year,” Montanaro wrote, “as independents soured on him, and Democrats were unenthusiastic about his presidency.”

Biden was fighting an uphill battle against the Republicans on nearly every issue since the November midterms, but he benefitted from a rebound in popularity that saw his favourability rise among all three categories of American voters. 

“He saw improvement among respondents across the political spectrum,” wrote The Hill’s Jared Gains, who reported on the Marist poll which saw Biden’s support among Democrats rise from 85% in January to 88% in February while his support among Republicans rose from 13% to 15%.

The President also saw a modest rise in his support at that time among independents at the time, rising from 32% to 36% according to Gains, though this might not have been a good sign for Biden. 

“One warning sign,” Domenico Montanaro, “is that Biden still is lagging with independents—just 36% of them approve of the job he's doing," luckily that seems to have changed in the new polling from Gallup.

Biden’s numbers overall in February were a good indication that he would stand a chance against the Republicans in 2024, something Democrats have worried about since last year. 

“For months, Democrats have not been sure that Biden was their best shot at winning in 2024,” wrote Montanaro, before adding that several surveys showed most Democrats believed the best path to the White House in 2024 was with someone else. 

"Back in November—right before the midterms—54% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they had a better chance with someone else,” Montanaro noted. Though now Biden looks like he will be the Democrat's best shot at winning in 2024.