Asked on March 2, 2022 by a journalist accredited to the White House about his support for abortion, the American president said he did “not want to debate a subject of theology,” as if natural morality were dogma.
One more inconsistency that explains, at least in part, why the popularity rating of the second Catholic president in the history of the United States is in free fall, especially among Christians of all denominations, as shown in the detailed study published by the Pew Research Center on February 10, 2022.
The American institute specializing in opinion polls points out that while the President’s approval rating has reached a record low among white evangelical Protestants, it has also dropped significantly among black Protestants who make up the one of the largest voter pools for the Democratic Party.
White evangelicals across in America are traditionally pillars of the Republican Party: it is not surprising to see them mostly reject Joe Biden’s policies. But in a few months, the disapproval of the head of state has gone from 78%, at the time of the inauguration of Donald Trump’s successor, to 86% today.
On the Catholic side, the popularity of Joe Biden has also experienced a significant drop: if 56% had a positive image of their president in March 2021, only 46% hold that opinion a year later.
A drop which however hides significant disparities within this religious group: if in March 2022, only 35% of white Catholics still approve of Joe Biden’s policy, there are 64% of Hispanic Catholics who do so.
As for black Protestants who massively supported (92%) the president in March 2021, they seem more divided today with 65% of them still keeping a positive image of Joe Biden: the Kamala Harris effect – first black vice-president of the United States – is starting to fizzle out.
It is perhaps to avoid erosion regarding this part of the electorate that is traditionally loyal to the Democratic Party, that the host of the White House has just nominated Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, the first black woman to be nominated to such a position.
Will this be enough to reverse the trend, a few months before the mid-term elections during which, on November 8, voters will go to the polls to decide all of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and 35 seats out of 100 in the Senate?
It’s hard to say, but one thing is certain: to win back the Christian electorate, Catholic Joe Biden will have to rely on his graces of state, because the honeymoon seems to be over.
After a year, the popularity rating of the American head of state is showing a notable drop among Christians of all denominations and origins in the United States. A headache for the American executive, a few months before the midterm elections.