Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said President Joe Biden’s economic message still “hasn’t broken through” as the president’s approval rating on handling the economy continues to dwindle.
“Demonstrably, poll after poll shows that the broadly great economic news and the significant accomplishments of the first few years of the Biden administration hasn’t really broken through,” Coons admitted on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday.
The Delaware Democrat said he would rather be in a place where the “polls are soft, but the underlying economics are really strong,” as opposed to Biden having a lead in the polls, but the economics are heading in a “bad direction.”
Coons, a co-chairman of Biden’s campaign, said younger and working-class people “aren’t quite feeling it” regarding Biden’s economic policies. He pointed to similar comments made by Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), another campaign co-chairman, that he is “very concerned” about Biden’s ability to extend his message to rally support from black voters.
Coons and Clyburn are the latest Democratic allies and lawmakers to express their fears that the president will lose key voting blocs, such as working class and black voters, that helped him ensure victory in the 2020 election to former President Donald Trump. The front-runner for the Republican nomination has ramped up his messaging on the economy, a sore point for Biden’s reelection campaign, as a way to gain support — particularly heading into the Iowa caucuses next week.
A CNN poll from December found that just 33% of voters approved of Biden’s handling of the economy. His approval rating sits at 41%, according to a CBS poll released Monday.
Respondents of the Monday poll are less pessimistic about the year, with half expecting the economy to be slowing or in a recession — down from most of 2023 when 60% believed an economic crisis was on the horizon.
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Coons pointed to administration successes, such as a record-low 3.7% unemployment rate, new manufacturing jobs, bipartisan infrastructure work, and capping the cost of insulin at $35, as ways Biden can appeal to his voting base.
“We’re going to see more and more things like this, where average Americans are feeling it and seeing it,” Coons said.