Pretty much every poll we’ve seen over the last several months indicates things don’t look good for Democrats going into the 2022 midterm elections.
Most generic congressional ballot polls are favoring Republicans, while polls about President Joe Biden’s performance show basement-level numbers as they have since September, with his handling of the economy and inflation issues hurting him — and his party — the most.
Hispanic voters, who have been a reliable voting bloc for Democrats in prior elections, are also continuing to drift towards Republicans, a trend that began during the Trump years and which shows no signs of letting up.
What likely will add to the woes — and seal the political fates of vulnerable House and Senate Democrats come the fall elections — is Biden’s recent decision to let Title 42 expire near the end of May.
Title 42 was implemented by the Trump administration at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 to limit the spread of the coronavirus from illegal immigrants who came from countries with high rates of communicable diseases. According to various news reports, some 1.7 million illegal immigrants apprehended at the border have been deported under the policy.
Open borders Democrats and their affiliated special interest groups have opposed Title 42 from the start, calling it “unnecessary” and “inhumane.” Those opinions were no doubt a driving force behind Biden’s decision to let it sunset.
Unfortunately for Biden, however, the decision has become his “most unpopular decision” to date according to a recent Morning Consult poll, which also noted that even when Biden’s approval numbers were not underwater, he still polled poorly in their surveys when it came to his handling of the southern border crisis.
“A majority of registered voters (56%) oppose the decision to remove the border controls implemented by the Trump administration, the largest backlash against a Biden administration policy among dozens tracked by Morning Consult since January 2021,” Morning Consult reported.
Only 31% of independents and 8% of Republicans supported the move. 60% of Democrats said they were okay with it.
Joe Biden’s consistently bad polling on immigration matters has caused Democrats in hotly contested races to push back on his Title 42 move, with Sens. Mark Kelly (Ariz.) and Raphael Warnock (Ga.) among those expressing alarm. In particular, Warnock — who is likely to face Republican Herschel Walker in November, stated that “this is not the right time.” Walker currently leads Warnock in hypothetical polling matchups.
The decision earlier this month by Biden’s CDC to announce they felt Title 42 was no longer needed has also galvanized Republicans in border states, including Rep. Chip Roy, who represents Texas’ 21st Congressional District. He went off on Democrats during a Judiciary Committee markup last week, telling them he was “sick and tired” of Democrats “scoffing at Texas,” one of the states hit the hardest when the border surges take place.
An also fed-up Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced a new policy last week he says will “help local officials whose communities are being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants who are being dropped off by the Biden administration.” Abbott signed an order directing state agencies to begin utilizing charter buses to reroute the illegal immigrants Biden keeps dumping in Texas to Washington, D.C.
“We are sending them to the United States Capitol where the Biden administration will be able to more immediately address the needs of the people that they are allowing to come across our border,” Abbott stated as he signed the order.
Biden’s unpopularity, in general, and the low marks he’s getting on key issues like the economy and immigration portend a disastrous election year for his party. To be sure, there are still several months to go, but the writing is on the wall for Democrats who can only hope to be able to contain the damage at this point.
Media analyst Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym Sister Toldjah and is a regular contributor to RedState and Legal Insurrection.
