Public Says Pandemic Not Over, But Impact on Daily Life May Be

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In a television appearance last month, President Joe Biden said, “The pandemic is over.” Only 1 in 5 Americans would make that kind of blanket declaration about Covid-19, but the latest Monmouth University Poll finds most feel it is time to put pandemic-era restrictions – such as mask and vaccine mandates – behind us. The poll also finds that uptake of the new bivalent booster shot may not be as widespread as it was for the initial boosters.

Just 21% of the public says the Covid pandemic is over, while another 26% say it is not over yet but will end eventually. However, half (50%) of the country feels the pandemic will never be over and we will just have to live with it. …

The poll also finds that fewer people plan to get the new bivalent booster shot when compared with a year ago when the first boosters were approved. Just 1 in 3 adults are very likely to get the new booster (33% plus another 1% who already received the new booster by the time the poll was conducted). CONTINUED

Monmouth University Polling Institute

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Trust in Federal Government Branches Continues to Falter

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Americans continue to lack faith in the federal government, with low levels of trust in all three branches. Gallup previously reported that trust in the judicial branch of the federal government has cratered in the past two years; it now sits at 47%, below the majority level for the first time in Gallup’s polling history. At 43%, trust in the executive branch is just three percentage points above its record low from the Watergate era. Americans are even less trusting in the legislative branch, at 38%, but this figure has been as low as 28% in the past. CONTINUED

Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup

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Majority in US see relations with adversaries souring

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The U.S. international outlook has undergone a major shift in recent years, a new poll shows, with a majority now expecting that U.S. relations with allies will stay the same or improve but that U.S. dealings with traditional adversaries like Russia and North Korea will only grow more hostile.

Two years into the Biden administration, the assessments look much different from four years ago, at roughly the same point in the Trump administration. Now, 60% of U.S. adults say relations with adversaries will get worse, up from 26% four years ago, according to the poll from the Pearson Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Just 21% say relationships with allies will deteriorate, down from 46% then. CONTINUED

Ellen Knickmeyer & Nuha Dolby, Associated Press

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The central tension driving the 2022 election

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The choice for voters in the 2022 campaign has sharpened to the point where it can be condensed to a single phrase: Your money or your rights?

Most voters continue to express strikingly negative views on President Joe Biden’s management of the economy, and for that matter, his handling of crime and the border. Traditionally the president’s party has suffered significant losses in midterm elections when voters hold such negative views about conditions in the country and his response to them.

But Democrats remain highly competitive this year largely because so many voters also view the Donald Trump-era Republicans as a threat to their rights (particularly on abortion), values and democracy itself. CONTINUED

Ronald Brownstein, CNN

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Colorado: Bennet Leads O’Dea in Senate Race

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In the race for U.S. Senate in Colorado, Democratic incumbent Michael Bennet has a 7-point advantage over his Republican challenger Joe O’Dea among registered voters statewide. Bennet enjoys a comparable lead among those who say they definitely plan to vote. In Colorado’s gubernatorial contest, Democratic incumbent Jared Polis outpaces Republican Heidi Ganahl by 18 points among registered voters in the state. His lead narrows to 15 points among those who definitely plan to vote. CONTINUED

Marist Institute for Public Opinion

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Biden is unpopular, but Democrats lead 2022 polls. What gives?

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Joe Biden is underwater: 45 percent of voters approve of his job performance as president while 52 percent disapprove, adding up to a net approval rating of negative seven percentage points. Yet Biden isn’t sinking Democratic congressional candidates — they lead Republicans in national House polls by one point.

These numbers, taken from FiveThirtyEight’s polling averages, are confusing. Historically, when voters dislike a president, they vent their frustration by voting against his party in Congress. Yet the best measure of whether voters like Biden — his approval rating — seems utterly unrelated to how well House Democrats are polling in the midterm elections.

So, to resolve this conundrum, I tracked what factors led to increases and decreases in Biden’s presidential approval rating, and what events led to changes in national House polls. CONTINUED

David Byler, Washington Post

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