President Joe Biden’s approval rating in Georgia – nationally regarded as one of several key swing states in the 2022 midterm election and the presidential race in 2024 – is declining, according to a new survey.
A Civiqs survey released last week show 53% of Georgia voters disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president, compared to 40% who do approve and 7% nether approving nor disapproving.
Nationally, 50% of voters disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president, while just 42% approve, and 8% neither approving nor disapproving.
Civiqs surveyed 1,271 registered voters from Aug. 28-31, 2021. The survey was conducted online, among selected members of the Civiqs research panel. Sampled individuals were emailed by Civiqs and responded using a personalized link to the survey at civiqs.com.
The survey results were weighted by age, race, gender, education, party identification, and region to be representative of the population of registered voters in the United States. The survey has a margin of error of plus/minus 2.8%.
Biden also has a disapproval rating of 10 points or more in four other key swing states – Florida, Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. In 2020, Biden won Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania on his way to a White House victory, and narrowly lost Florida and North Carolina.
“President Biden has not been successful at improving his standing among non-Democrats,” a Civiqs analysis of the survey said. “Just 13% of Independents and 2% of Republicans have a better opinion of Biden now than when he took office.
“Nearly half (47%) of Americans say that their opinion of President Biden has gotten worse since he took office in January,” the analysis said. “Among those are many core or potential Biden supporters, including 12% of Democrats and 51% of Independents. Most Democrats (52%) say that their opinion of Biden is unchanged since January, although 35% have an improved opinion of Biden.
“Biden has also struggled to win over young voters. Only 9% of voters aged 18-34 say that their opinion of Biden has gotten better since he took office. In contrast, 27% of voters aged 65 or older have an improved opinion of President Biden this year.”
Some observers believe Biden’s declining approval rating is attributable to his withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s subsequent rapid takeover, the analysis said. “However, the change in Biden’s approval rating has been gradual, not sudden.
“Even now, 52% of Americans approve of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, versus only 35% who disapprove, a finding that is consistent across many other public opinion polls,” the analysis said.
“None of Biden’s flagship policies appear to have overwhelming disapproval, but most Americans do not feel that the efforts of the Biden administration have benefited them personally,” it said. “It is possible that Biden is not doing enough or is not addressing Americans’ most important problems. It is also possible that in a time of ongoing crises, President Biden’s job approval rating would be even lower if not for the relative popularity of his policy initiatives. As it stands, President Biden is losing popular support, and to the extent that voters approve of his policy positions, it has not been enough to stop or reverse that trend.”
This story available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – The war of words between President Joe Biden and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp over new White House COVID mandates continued Friday afternoon, with Kemp accusing the administration of playing “pandemic politics.”
“Look, the public already doesn’t trust the federal government because of the mixed messages about the coronavirus,” Kemp told Capitol Beat. “This is pandemic politics from a president who promised to unite the country, but instead is dividing us.”
On Thursday, the Biden White House issued a new, six-pronged series of COVID mandates, including a requirement for all employers with more than 100 workers to mandate either vaccinations or weekly tests.
“This is the wrong way to go,” Kemp said. “Small business owners already don’t have enough people in the workforce, and now they’re being asked to be the vaccine police.”
Earlier Friday, Biden responded to ABC News when asked about threats to challenge his vaccine measures in court.
“Have at it,” the president said. “Look, I am so disappointed that, particularly some of the Republican governors, have been so cavalier with the health of these kids, so cavalier of the health of their communities. We’re playing for real here. This isn’t a game.
“It’s the president who’s being cavalier about the virus,” Kemp responded. “We’re allowing our local school superintendents to determine what is best for their kids. How in the world can President Biden figure out what is best for our local schools?”
“I don’t know of any scientist out there in this field who doesn’t think it makes considerable sense to do the six things I’ve suggested,” Biden said. “We’ve got to come together. … The vast majority of the American people know we have to do these things.”
Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan also criticized the president’s plan, saying the new mandates “only served to harden the partisan lines around an issue that requires all of us working together and not against one another. I believe the vaccine is safe, effective and the only real way out of this awful pandemic, but mandates have not and will not be the answer, as President Biden has previously stated before reversing course.
“Forcing hard-working Americans to choose between mandated personal health decisions and a paycheck will neither reduce vaccine hesitancy nor move this country in a positive direction,” Duncan added.
Georgia Democrats and Republicans also weighed in Friday on the debate over COVID-19 mandates.
“With Georgians dying and our state’s hospitals overwhelmed from COVID-19, Kemp is fighting everyone and everything except the virus,” said Rebecca Galanti, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Between banning local governments from trying to slow COVID-19 spread and picking public fights with the federal government, Kemp is putting his own politics ahead of saving Georgians’ lives.”
The Georgia Senate Republican Caucus issued a statement saying its members have worked “to ensure that vaccines are easily available to everyone who chooses to get the shot. We have encouraged unvaccinated individuals to take this virus seriously and make their health-care decisions in consultation with their doctor. Our approach has struck the appropriate balance between government responsiveness and personal responsibility.
“President Biden’s one-size-fits-all mandates are widely overreaching and exceed the bounds of his authority,” the caucus said. “They may also set a dangerous precedent for federal executive action beyond the issue of COVID-19.”
On Friday, the latest numbers from the state Department of Public Health showed 1.15 million Georgians have contracted coronavirus since the pandemic began in March 2020, with more than 20,580 deaths and 75,928 hospitalizations.
Kemp has long maintained that Georgia will not lock down again or impose statewide mask mandates. Biden’s new directives didn’t change his mind.
“I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration,” Kemp posted on his Twitter account.
Speaking from the White House Thursday, Biden said the estimated 80 million Americans who have not been vaccinated have made COVID-19 “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
“And it’s caused by the fact that despite America having an unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months free vaccines have been available in 80,000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot.”
This story available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
A passenger disembarks from a MARTA train at the Buckhead Station in Atlanta.
ATLANTA – Public transit projects for the first time would receive federal funding based on their connectivity to affordable housing under legislation proposed Friday by several members of Georgia’s congressional delegation.
The Public Transportation Expansion Act is sponsored in the Senate by Georgia Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives include Democratic Reps. Nikema Williams of Atlanta, Carolyn Bourdeax of Suwanee and Hank Johnson of Stone Mountain.
The bill would establish a federal grant program to fund public transportation expansion to serve low-income communities and connect affordable housing with transit networks.
It also, for the first time in decades, would let large transit systems use federal funds for operating expenses.
The legislation was added to the massive budget reconciliation bill now making its way through Congress.
“I am championing historic transit investments in the reconciliation bill because mobility is essential for opportunity, health, and quality of life — especially in communities that have been historically neglected,” Ossoff said.
“This legislation will build public transportation to serve residents in Georgia’s low-income neighborhoods, connecting affordable housing with health care, education, and employment centers while protecting our environment by reducing air pollution.”
“Connected communities are thriving communities,” added Williams, a member of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee. “For too long, Black, Brown, and low-income communities have been left behind in transit expansion. … This legislation is a direct line to economic opportunity for everyone, no matter your ZIP Code or your bank account.”
The budget reconciliation bill faces an uncertain future in Congress. Because of the process being used to consider the legislation, it must receive support from all 50 Democrats in the Senate – with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris – in order to pass.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has expressed concerns that the nation can’t afford the legislation’s $3.5 trillion price tag, while progressive Democrats are seeking an even larger spending measure.
This story available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
ATLANTA – Last week’s meeting of a legislative committee looking for ways to improve rural Georgia’s economy was full of discouraging statistics depicting losses in population, failing schools and inadequate health care.
But in the midst of that gloom and doom, members of the Georgia House Rural Development Council got a glimpse of fledgling efforts by a nonprofit that is helping farmers find new markets for their products and could help reinvigorate Georgia’s textile industry.
The Georgia Rural Hospital Food Collaborative was launched last May to provide fresh fruits and vegetables, pork and beef, and even medical scrubs to rural hospitals and nursing homes.
“Not only is it good for hospitals. It’s good for nursing homes,” said Jimmy Lewis, CEO of HomeTown Health Care, which represents rural hospitals in Georgia. “It’s good economic development.”
The food collaborative is a byproduct of the coronavirus pandemic, which has disrupted supply chains Georgia fruit and vegetable farmers rely on to get their highly perishable crops to market.
HomeTown Health Care has partnered with Healthcare Services Group, which manages hospital dining and nutritional services, to cut out the middleman and supply fruits and vegetables directly to hospitals and nursing homes.
Sixteen rural hospitals and nursing home are participating in the program, David Bridges, interim director of the Georgia Center for Rural Prosperity, told members of the Rural Development Council Sept. 1.
Offering fruits and vegetables at reasonable prices boosts the bottom lines of rural facilities often operating on thin margins, said Bridges, who also serves as president of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tlfton.
“If they have to choose between paying for food or nurses, we want them to pay the nurses,” he said.
“The patients in the hospitals love it,” Lewis added. “It’s doing really well.”
The same supply chain issues face Georgia beef and pork producers, making it difficult to ship cattle and pigs raised here to out-of-state processers in a timely manner.
Lewis said the Miller County Development Authority provided the solution, offering to purchase a local slaughterhouse and lease it to the food collaborative.
“We’ve got farms lined up to have their beef processed,” Lewis said.
Another project HomeTown Health and the Georgia Center for Rural Prosperity are involved in holds potential for reviving a textile industry that has lost thousands of jobs to overseas outsourcing for decades.
Working with Swainsboro-based textile manufacturer America Knits, the two have launched Field to Closet, an initiative to provide 100% cotton medical scrubs to Georgia hospitals at no cost. Thus far, 16 rural hospitals have signed on.
The project spins Georgia-grown cotton into yarn at Parkdale Mills in Rabun Gap, weaves the yarn into fabric in North Carolina, and arrives at the America Knits plant for final production. As an additional benefit, the fabric is treated with an antimicrobial chemical that inhibits the growth of bacteria and has been shown in lab tests to destroy viruses.
“There was a time when an end-to-end U.S. supply chain for cotton garments would have been considered a pipedream,” said Steve Hawkins, CEO of America Knits.
“Working on this project aligns perfectly with our focus on providing prosperity for rural smaller communities and creating quality, environmentally sustainable products in the United States.”
Lewis envisions expanding the medical scrubs project to all sorts of cotton clothing as a way to “reshore” cotton production back from overseas. He said several major companies are interested in investing, including Ralph Lauren and Nike.
“If we could track [cotton] from the point of the seed all the way to a new cotton product … we can bring cotton back to the United States,” Lewis said. “We’ve got every part of the cluster to make re-shoring a reality.”
This story available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
Gov. Brian Kemp is vowing to fight President Joe Biden’s newly announced COVID-19 mandates.
ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp is vowing to fight President Joe Biden’s newly announced COVID-19 mandates, which now include requiring employers with more than 100 workers to mandate either vaccinations or weekly tests.
“I will pursue every legal option available to the state of Georgia to stop this blatantly unlawful overreach by the Biden administration,” Kemp posted on his Twitter account.
Speaking from the White House Thursday, Biden said the estimated 80 million Americans who have not been vaccinated have made COVID-19 “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
“And it’s caused by the fact that despite America having an unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months free vaccines have been available in 80,000 different locations, we still have nearly 80 million Americans who have failed to get the shot.”
Biden also took aim at public officials who he said are “actively working to undermine the fight against COVID-19. Instead of encouraging people to get vaccinated and mask up, they’re ordering mobile morgues for the unvaccinated dying from COVID in their communities. This is totally unacceptable.”
Kemp has long maintained that Georgia will not lock down again or impose statewide mask mandates.
“The unvaccinated overcrowd our hospitals, are overrunning the emergency rooms and intensive care units, leaving no room for someone with a heart attack, or pancreatitis, or cancer,” Biden said. “We cannot allow these actions to stand in the way of protecting the large majority of Americans who have done their part and want to get back to life as normal.”
Earlier this week, two Georgia Democratic congressmen – David Scott of Atlanta and Hank Johnson of Stone Mountain – wrote a letter urging Kemp to enact a statewide pause on elective, in-patient surgeries. They also called for Kemp to extend licensing waivers for hospitals and health-care workers who provide critical services beyond the current waivers’ Sept. 19 expiration date.
“Hospital systems are being forced to make difficult decisions about how to care for patients when there aren’t enough resources to go around,” the congressmen said. “Our state is at a critical point in its fight against the pandemic and as elected officials, we must prioritize the health and well-being of our citizens above all other considerations.”
In response, Kemp urged Scott and Johnson to “request the Federal Emergency Management Agency to set a maximum rate for contract health-care workers” and “demand clear guidance from the [federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and the White House regarding COVID-19 booster shots and their detailed logistical plans to assist states in this enormous undertaking.
“My top priority over the last month has been to ensure hospitals across our state have the necessary resources at their disposal to deliver care to Georgians in need,” Kemp wrote.
The governor said he has directed the state Department of Community Health to increase state-supported hospital staffing from 1,500 to 2,800 and authorized up to 2,500 Georgia National Guard troops to assist hospital systems with non-medical staffing needs.
Biden also is signing an executive order requiring all executive branch federal employees to get vaccinated.
“We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin,” Biden said. “And your refusal has cost all of us.”
In a direct aim at governors who Biden believes have been blocking his COVID measures, Biden said, “My plan also takes on elected officials and states that are undermining you and these lifesaving actions. Right now, local school officials are trying to keep children safe in a pandemic while their governor picks a fight with them and even threatens their salaries or their jobs. If they’ll not help – if these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way.”
While Kemp opposes mandates, he has not stood in the way of local school systems in Georgia that wish to require masks.
This story available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.
