Biden approval rating drops to 34 percent in Georgia: poll

President Biden’s approval rating in Georgia is sliding into dangerous territory, according to a new Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, a troubling development for Democrats as they look to pick up the governor’s mansion this year and hold onto their recent electoral gains.

The survey shows that roughly one-third of Georgia voters — about 34 percent — approve of Biden’s job performance, a significant decline from last May, when his approval rating in the Peach State sat at 51 percent. It’s also notably lower than his national average, which currently sits at just under 42 percent, according to the data website FiveThirtyEight.

The Journal-Constitution poll is particularly bad news for Democrats in Georgia, a former Republican stronghold that has emerged as a key battleground state in recent years. Democrats are hoping to protect the seat of Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) this year, as well as flip the governor’s mansion. 

Stacey Abrams, the 2018 nominee for governor who’s making another run for the office this year, is trailing Gov. Brian Kemp (R) by a roughly 7-point margin. In a head-to-head matchup, Kemp notches 48.1 percent support to Abrams’s 40.8 percent, according to the survey. 

Abrams fares slightly better in a hypothetical matchup against former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), who’s challenging Kemp in the GOP primary. In that scenario, Perdue scores 47.1 percent support, while Abrams comes in with 43.2 percent. 

Warnock also trails his top Republican opponent, former NFL star Herschel Walker, in a head-to-head matchup, coming in with 43.6 percent support to Walker’s 47.1 percent, the poll found. 

In a hypothetical race against Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black, however, Warnock still has the edge. The poll shows Warnock leading Black 46 percent to 40.7 percent.

There’s still more than nine months to go before the 2022 general elections in November. Still, the poll shows worsening fortunes for Georgia Democrats little more than a year after Biden carried the state in the 2020 presidential election and Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) flipped its two Senate seats.

The Journal-Constitution poll was conducted by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs from Jan. 13-24. It surveyed 872 registered voters in Georgia and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.