Biden trails Trump in most battleground states as voters sour on the US economy
Biden falters amid growing voter pessimism about US economy
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President Biden is losing support in key battleground states amid growing pessimism among voters about the state of the U.S. economy, according to a new poll.
Findings published Wednesday by Bloomberg News/Morning Consult show that Biden trails former President Donald Trump in six of the seven swing states that are likely to determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.
Biden leads the presumptive Republican nominee in just one state — Michigan, by 2 percentage points — but is behind in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina.
The results come as poll respondents expressed a bleak view of the economy, an issue that has consistently ranked as a top priority for voters.
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President Biden speaks during an event at the Old Post Office in Chicago on June 28, 2023. (Taylor Glascock/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
A majority of voters in the seven swing states expect economic conditions to worsen in coming months, with fewer than 20% projecting declines in inflation and borrowing costs by the end of the year. Just 23% of respondents anticipate the employment rate will improve during that same time period.
Those figures were even lower among undecided voters, a crucial voting bloc.
"People are really tying Bidenomics and their perception of the economy to the inflation rate," said Matt Monday, senior manager of Morning Consult.
More than three quarters of poll respondents said the president is responsible for the current performance of the U.S. economy, and nearly half said he was "very responsible."
The White House lauded the mostly steady decline in inflation last year, but most economists agreed that was due to the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hike campaign and the resolution of supply chain disruptions, not the president's economic agenda.
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Customers shop at a supermarket in Foster City, California, on Sept. 13, 2023. (Li Jianguo/Xinhua via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Since then, progress on inflation has largely flatlined. Although the consumer price index has fallen considerably from a peak of 9.1%, it remains well above the Federal Reserve's 2% goal. And when compared with January 2021, shortly before the inflation crisis began, prices are up a stunning 18.94%.
On top of that, many families have yet to see material relief. Food prices are up 21% from the start of 2021, while shelter costs are up 20%, according to FOX Business calculations. Energy prices, meanwhile, are up 36.8%.
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Chronically high prices are forcing Americans to spend about $1,069 more per month than they did three years ago, before the inflation crisis began, according to a recent estimate from Moody's Analytics.
As they spend more on everyday goods, Americans are burning through their savings, and are increasingly turning to credit cards to cover those basic expenses.
The burden is disproportionately borne by low-income Americans, whose already-stretched paychecks are heavily affected by price fluctuations.