Record numbers are worse off, a recipe for political discontent

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Four in 10 Americans say they’ve gotten worse off financially since Joe Biden became president, the most in ABC News/Washington Post polls dating back 37 years. Political fallout includes poor performance ratings for Biden and a tight hypothetical Biden/Trump rematch next year.

Given disaffection with both leaders, a rerun of the 2020 presidential election is hardly enticing: Nearly six in 10 Democratic-aligned adults don’t want to see Biden nominated again for the job, and half on the Republican side would rather not see Donald Trump as their party’s nominee.

If those were the choices and the election were today, the poll suggests it could be close: Among all adults, 48 percent support Donald Trump and 44 percent are for Biden; it’s a similar 48-45 percent among registered voters. CONTINUED

Gary Langer, ABC News

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St. Bonaventure/Siena Research survey reveals 70% of Americans are sports fans, 21% avid; football clearly king

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Seventy percent of Americans say they are sports fans, according to a new national survey of more than 3,200 United States residents released today by the Siena College Research Institute and St. Bonaventure University’s Jandoli School of Communication.

Twenty-one percent of Americans are “Avid” fans who watch sports, sports news, talk about sports, check scores and in many cases play fantasy sports almost every single day, while another 26% of “Involved” fans engage with sports at least several times weekly.

Heading into Super Bowl week, 72% of Americans say they are football fans, even if they don’t consider themselves sports fans. Eighty-three percent watch football to bond with family and friends, 81% “because it’s fun” and 65% “because it is exciting.” Eighty-two percent say that they learn about teamwork by watching football, while 79% learn about strategy and 72% learn about leadership. At the same time, more than a quarter of Americans (27%) say that football is too violent. CONTINUED

St. Bonaventure University

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Betting on sports betting growth

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The Super Bowl is just over a week away, where the Philadelphia Eagles will face the Kansas City Chiefs in what is usually the biggest night in football every year. The Super Bowl is also one of the biggest money-making nights of the year for sports – between TV ads, beers bought, and bets placed, the Super Bowl generates a ton of money.

Sports betting, in particular, has taken off in recent years. The industry has grown following the 2018 Supreme Court decision that opened the way for states to legalize betting. Since that decision, as more and more states adopted legalized sports gambling, each Super Bowl has beat the next on bets placed and revenue generated. CONTINUED

Clifford Young, Sarah Feldman & Bernard Mendez, Ipsos

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Who Will Replace Dianne Feinstein?

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Senator Dianne Feinstein hasn’t yet announced whether she’s retiring, but the race to replace her has already begun. The 2024 contest will be the first wide-open Democratic Senate primary in California since 1992, when Feinstein, who is now 89 years old, was first elected to the seat.

The field is quickly getting crowded: U.S. Representatives Adam Schiff and Katie Porter have announced their candidacies, and Barbara Lee is expected to join them. The state’s Democratic strategists aren’t ruling out other contenders eventually jumping in as well, although most expect Feinstein to retire rather than run again.

As it stands, the contest will offer voters a choice between three distinct eras of Democratic thinking: Porter, 49, embodies the pugnacious anti-corporate populism associated with Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren; Schiff, 62, is a more mainstream liberal, shaped by Clinton-era centrism; and Lee, 76, is an uncompromising leftist and living link to the most confrontational elements of the 1960s social movements. CONTINUED

Ronald Brownstein, The Atlantic

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Confidence in police practices drops to a new low

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Americans’ confidence in how police are trained and their treatment of Black people both have fallen to new lows in an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Following the death of Tyre Nichols after he was beaten by Memphis police on Jan. 7, just 39 percent of adults in the national survey are confident that the police in this country are adequately trained to avoid the use of excessive force. And just 41 percent are confident the police treat Black and white people equally.

Both are lows since first asked in ABC/Post polls nearly a decade ago. CONTINUED

Gary Langer, ABC News

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California: The Economy and Homelessness Are Top Issues

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As a new legislative session and state budget cycle get into full swing, Californians say that the economy and homelessness are the most important issues for the governor and legislature to address. A solid majority of Californians are very concerned that their family’s younger generation will not be able to afford a home in their part of the state. And similar to a year ago, most Californians approve of the job that Governor Newsom is doing. CONTINUED

Public Policy Institute of California

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