All of the GOP's efforts to hurt Biden's popularity have failed

Republicans have been adamant that President Joe Biden’s popularity will fall as they vilify his policy proposals, including the coronavirus relief package Congress passed in March and the infrastructure bill congressional Democrats are currently trying to pass.

Yet a new CNN poll released Wednesday found that their strategy has not worked, as Biden — and his policies — remain popular nearly 100 days into his tenure, despite the GOP’s best efforts.

According to the CNN poll, 53% of Americans approve of the job Biden has done in his first 100 days in office. That approval rating tracks with Biden’s approval rating average from FiveThirtyEight, which has hovered around 53% since he was sworn in on Jan. 20 — a level he has maintained despite GOP criticism.

Other polls show that despite Republicans’ attacks on his policies, both the coronavirus relief package and the infrastructure bill are even more popular than Biden is.

A CBS News/YouGov poll taken between April 21 to April 24 found 58% of adults in the United States approve of Biden’s infrastructure plan, even though Republicans have been attacking it by saying it is not about infrastructure.

And that same poll found that 66% of adults believe the coronavirus relief package — which extended unemployment payments, authorized another round of direct checks, and made a child tax credit more generous to help alleviate childhood poverty — has been “helpful to the economy.”

In all, that’s a bad sign for Republicans like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who told Politico that Biden’s “policies are going to be our road to comeback.”

Polls show the GOP’s strategy of attacking Biden’s infrastructure plan because it includes things they argue aren’t infrastructure while simultaneously attempting to vilify it because it raises taxes on corporations and the rich is also rife with peril.

A Morning Consult poll from April found that voters believe things like care for the elderly, internet access, and water pipes are infrastructure, despite GOP claims that they aren’t.

And voters support raising taxes on those groups. A Monmouth University poll from Monday found that 64% of Americans support raising taxes on corporations, while 65% support raising taxes on those earning more than $400,000 annually.

The fact that Republicans can’t seem to make a dent in Biden’s popularity appears to be pushing them toward a strategy of running against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the 2022 midterms.

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee that seeks to elect Republicans to the House, released a memo this week saying Pelosi is unpopular and that tying her to Democratic candidates could help in the quest to win back the House.

But it’s unclear that will be the political winner that Republicans think it is.

Stu Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political handicapper, told the American Independent Foundation that, at this stage, he doubts running against Pelosi would be what changed GOP fortunes in the midterms.

“They’ve got Nancy Pelosi on the brain here, but the reality is that 2022 midterms is likely to be about Joe Biden,” Rothenberg said, referring to Republicans. “And, I’d have to see some numbers that would really blow my mind to think that running against Nancy Pelosi would be more effective than running against Joe Biden.”

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.