Free Republic

A majority of Democrats now think one term is plenty for President Joe Biden, despite his insistence that he plans to seek reelection in 2024. That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research that shows just 37% of Democrats say they want him to seek a second term, down from 52% in the weeks before last year’s midterm elections. While Biden has trumpeted his legislative victories and ability to govern, the poll suggests relatively few U.S. adults give him high marks on either. Follow-up interviews with poll respondents suggest that many believe the...

Many Americans remain pessimistic about the state of U.S. democracy and the way elected officials are chosen — nearly two years after a divisive presidential election spurred false claims of widespread fraud and a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. Only about half of Americans have high confidence that votes in the upcoming midterm elections will be counted accurately, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, though that’s an improvement from about 4 in 10 saying that just before the 2020 presidential election. Just 9% of U.S. adults think democracy is working “extremely”...

When Emmanuel Obeng-Dankwa is worried about making rent on his New York City apartment, he sometimes holds off on filling his blood pressure medication. “If there’s no money, I prefer to skip the medication to being homeless,” said Obeng-Dankwa, a 58-year-old security guard. He is among a majority of adults in the U.S. who say that health care is not handled well in the country, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll reveals that public satisfaction with the U.S. health care system is remarkably low, with fewer than half of Americans...

Most U.S. adults think gun violence is increasing nationwide and want to see gun laws made stricter, according to a new poll that finds broad public support for a variety of gun restrictions, including many that are supported by majorities of Republicans and gun owners. The poll by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also shows majorities of U.S. adults view both reducing gun violence and protecting gun ownership as important issues. The poll was conducted between July 28 and Aug. 1, after a string of deadly mass...

A solid majority of Americans believe most abortions should be legal in the first three months of a woman’s pregnancy, but most say the procedure should usually be illegal in the second and third trimesters, according to a new poll. The poll comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case involving a currently blocked Mississippi law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, two weeks into the second trimester. If the high court upholds the law, it would be the first time since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision confirming a woman’s right...

Sixty-three percent of American approve of President Biden's job performance thus far, according to an Associated Press-NORC poll released Monday, up 2 percentage points from late March. The poll found 96 percent of Democrats, 62 percent of independents and 23 percent of Republicans surveyed approve of Biden's work in his first three full months in office.

Allow me to revise and extend my remarks on polling skepticism in our annus horribilis by citing … another poll. Yes, yes, I get the irony of this, but yesterday’s AP/Ipsos poll points out the dichotomy facing election polling in every cycle — but especially in this one. And that dichotomy is how to calculate preferences against enthusiasm in identifying just which voters are likely to participate at all, especially in the middle of a pandemic.The toplines of the poll are hardly cheery for Donald Trump or Republicans. At the moment, 41% of respondents plan to vote for Joe...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite pockets of attention-grabbing protests, a new survey finds Americans remain overwhelmingly in favor of stay-at-home orders and other efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. A majority say it won’t be safe to lift such restrictions anytime soon, even as a handful of governors announce plans to ease within days the public health efforts that have upended daily life and roiled the global economy. The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that more than a month after schoolyards fell silent, restaurant tables and bar stools emptied, and waves from a...

The solid economy is doing little to bolster support for President Donald Trump. Americans give Trump mixed reviews for his economic stewardship despite the growth achieved during this presidency, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Nearly two-thirds describe as “good” an economy that appears to have set a record for the longest expansion in U.S. history, with decade-long growth that began under Barack Obama. More people consider the economy to be good today than did at the start of the year. But significantly fewer approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, even...

About half of young Americans expect to be financially better off than their parents, according to a new poll, a sign that the dream of upward mobility is alive but somewhat tempered. The poll, by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV, found that half of 15- to 26-year-olds think they eventually will be better off than their parents in terms of household finances. About 29 percent expect to do as well as their parents, and 20 percent expect to be worse off. Parents were slightly more optimistic: 60 percent think their children will do better than...

A majority of Americans now approve of President Donald Trump’s handling of U.S. relations with North Korea, a change that comes after his historic summit with that country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. But most don’t believe Kim is serious about addressing the international concerns about his country’s nuclear weapons program. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released Thursday finds that 55 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s diplomacy with North Korea, up from 42 percent in March and 34 percent last October. It’s the highest rating for the Republican president on any individual issue on...

The good news for President Donald Trump? His approval rating is up 7 points since last month, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The bad news? That only lifts Trump’s approval to 42 percent, low for a president at this point in his tenure. Still, the trajectory is a welcome shift for a White House that has been battered by chaos, controversies and internal upheaval. The poll suggests that at least some of the president’s improving standing is tied to the economy and the Republican tax overhaul, which offers a glimmer of...

President Donald Trump frequently casts his first year in office as a string of successes and campaign promises fulfilled. But less than a quarter of Americans think Trump has made good on the pledges he made to voters while running for president, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Among Republicans, just half say Trump has kept his promises, which included vows to overhaul his predecessor’s health care law, withdraw the United States from a nuclear accord with Iran and invest millions in new projects to fix the nation’s aging infrastructure. None of...

Most Americans oppose funding President Donald Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a poll released Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The president gets higher marks for efforts to boost defense spending and beef up the border patrol. Even many of Trump’s supporters reject his proposed budget cuts to scientific and medical research, the poll found. The poll results come at a crucial time. Congressional Republicans and Democrats are wrestling over whether to include a down payment for the wall — financed by U.S. taxpayers instead of Mexico, despite Trump’s repeated promises — in...

More than half of Americans view President Barack Obama favorably as he leaves office, a new poll shows, but Americans remain deeply divided over his legacy. Fewer than half of Americans say they’re better off eight years after his election or that Obama brought the country together.An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted after the 2016 election illuminates one of the key contradictions of Obama’s presidency. By and large, Americans like him. Yet Obama has been unable to translate that approval to many of his policies, or to parlay his popularity into fulfillment of his goals. Fifty-seven...

Amid Donald Trump’s unprecedented assertion that the general election “is going to be rigged,” many Americans who are drawn to the Republican nominee’s campaign have major doubts about the accuracy of the vote count. Only about a third of Republicans say they have a great deal or quite a bit of confidence that votes in this year’s election will be counted fairly, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Half the people who have a favorable opinion of the Republican nominee say they have little to no confidence in the integrity of the...

Few Americans have much confidence in the U.S. political system, the government in general, or in either political party. Most say they’re interested in the 2016 presidential election, but they also feel frustrated, helpless and even angry with the way the election is going, a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows. Democrats and Republicans alike feel down in the dumps about the election and about the political system in general. …

Ask Americans about bad manners in the 2016 presidential campaign and the conversation shifts immediately to Donald Trump, the GOP front-runner who has branded his critics “little,” “lyin’,” “low-energy” and worse. […] When it comes to rudeness in 2016 politics, the Republican presidential contest wins in a landslide, a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research has found. The survey shows that 78 percent of Americans, including most Republicans, see the GOP race as discourteous. Only about half as many — 41 percent — say the same about the Democratic campaign. […] It’s not just politics....