Less than a third of Iowans approve of the job President Biden is doing — an alarming sign in the swing state that plays a key role in national elections, according to a new poll released Tuesday.
While 31 percent gave Biden a thumbs up, 62 percent disapprove of his performance, a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll shows.
That’s a huge drop from June when the margin of approval was 43 percent to 52 percent.
The last time Biden was in positive territory in the poll was in March when he stood at 47 percent approve to 44 percent disapprove.
“This is a bad poll for Joe Biden, and it’s playing out in everything that he touches right now,” pollster J. Ann Selzer told the Des Moines Register.
Other polls predict possible trouble for Biden ahead, as well.
Former President Barack Obama carried Iowa in 2008 and 2012, but then the state switched to former President Donald Trump.
Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by 9 percentage points in 2016 and Biden by 8 percentage points in 2020.
Broken down by political party, only 4 percent of Republicans approve of the job Biden is doing, while 95 percent disapprove.
Among Democrats, he has an 86 percent approval rating to 7 percent disapprove.
Sixty-two percent of independents disapprove and 29 percent approve. Iowans also give the president bad marks on the Afghanistan withdrawal and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Only 22 percent approve of the withdrawal, while 69 percent disapprove.
“The way we exited Afghanistan was pretty sad,” Brad Singleton, 45, a poll respondent and political independent told the newspaper. “Not the fact that we left Afghanistan, because we probably should have done that a long time ago, but just the way we did that it felt like Americans were abandoned and it felt like we just left equipment there.”
On coronavirus, 60 percent of Iowans disapprove and 36 percent approve – a 17 percentage point drop since June.
The poll surveyed 805 adults between Sept. 12 -15.
It has a plus/minus margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.