Democrats are not only growing concerned about multiple ongoing crises and record-low approval ratings for President Joe Biden, but time might be running out to repair the damage before the 2022 November midterm elections.
"People are extremely discouraged, there's no doubt," Rep. Annie Kuster, D-N.H., told Axios on Thursday.
The NBC News poll had Biden's approval at its lowest point yet (40%), and 71% lacked confidence in Biden dealing with Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
"It's always a concern when the president's numbers are bad and you're in the same party," Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., told Axios.
"In my district, and I think in most frontline districts, you win your campaign because people know you know what work you've done.
"And they also know that I don't always vote in line with the party."
Wild and Kuster were among New Democrat Coalition members who met with Biden on Wednesday, urging action on inflation, supply chain woes, gas prices, and a budget reconciliation spending bill, according to Axios.
"It's an alarm bell for the commonsense, bipartisan solutions we should be focused on," moderate Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., said to Axios.
"The president talked about a lot of this at the State of the Union, and now we have to get it done."
The low approval on the handling of the economy (just 33%) in the NBC News poll was particularly problematic.
"Democrats have got to talk about, one, that this is real, and own up to this being real," Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., told Axios. "And then, own up to having a plan to deal with [price pressures and inflation]."
While moderates want solutions from Biden, progressives are blaming the president for not going all-in on their agenda.
"A substantial explanation for the president's relatively low approval is that Democrats are dissatisfied with the lack of progress we've made on certain issues," progressive Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., told Axios.
"I think that the president has to look at that poll and do what he can using executive action; whether it is canceling student debt, or stopping subsidies when it comes to fossil fuel infrastructure … which would materially improve the lives of the American people, and, I think, buoy his approval as we get closer to November."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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