President Joe Biden entered 2023 with a divided Congress and his fellow Democrats holding the narrowest of majorities within the Senate. And like latest predecessors who misplaced one-party management in midterm elections, Biden noticed the typical help fee for his place on votes in Congress drop final yr, to 70.4% from 94.9% a yr earlier, CQ Roll Call’s annual Vote Studies evaluation discovered.
Within his personal occasion, nevertheless, help for Biden’s place on votes was unchanged within the Senate. It dropped within the House with Republicans setting the ground agenda, however remained above charges set throughout President Barack Obama’s time period.
Biden had a median help rating amongst members of the Senate Democratic Caucus of 95% in 2023. That’s consistent with earlier years of his presidency and on par with the numbers attained by Obama when Democrats had the Senate majority and Republicans managed the House.
Of the 142 votes the place his place was clear, Biden misplaced 14 within the Senate, with 11 approaching resolutions of disapproval below the Congressional Review Act. The resolutions are thought of below expedited procedures requiring solely a easy majority to move, and lined such areas as overturning guidelines giving protected standing to the northern long-eared bat and the lesser prairie rooster.
Those setbacks had been successfully short-term, nevertheless. As with different circumstances, the president finally vetoed the resolutions, and advocates’ makes an attempt to override him didn’t get near the two-thirds vote wanted.
Seventeen Senate Democrats, together with each the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and her short-term alternative, Laphonza Butler, voted with Biden on 100% of roll calls the place his place was clear.
Among Democrats, solely Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia voted with the president lower than 94% of the time. Manchin, who has determined to not search reelection this yr and may problem Biden on a third-party ticket, voted towards nominees with some regularity. He sided with the president 76% of the time on all votes, and slightly below 87% of the time on nominations. In all, he opposed nominees and procedural votes to deliver up their confirmations 15 instances; no different Democratic caucus member was opposed greater than twice.
On the GOP aspect, 9 senators had general presidential help scores within the single digits. A complete of 11 Senate Republicans sided with Biden on lower than 10% of votes associated to nominations.
The Republican senators voting most ceaselessly in settlement with the president on nominations and associated procedural votes had been Susan Collins of Maine at 80% and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska at 72%. They had been adopted by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who supported Biden 68% of the time. Graham has lengthy been deferential to presidents on nomination votes.
House help dropped
Biden bought an identical 95% help fee from House Democrats on a smaller universe of votes, because the chamber doesn’t vote on nominations. But that was down from 99% within the earlier two years, when California Democrat Nancy Pelosi was speaker.
Last yr, 4 members disagreed with Biden’s place at the least 30% of the time, led by Jared Golden of Maine, whose district gave its Electoral College vote to Donald Trump in each 2016 and 2020, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, the lone Democratic freshman from a district carried by Trump. Golden was in disagreement greater than 62% of the time, with Gluesenkamp Perez disagreeing nearly 41% of the time.
The others with presidential disapproval scores over 30% had been Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, 36%; and Don Davis, D-N.C., 33%.
On the Republican aspect, solely 9 Republicans voted with the president greater than 10% of the time. That checklist consists of Rep. Celeste Maloy of Utah, who had a really restricted pattern measurement after being sworn in on Nov. 28. Maloy voted with the president on certainly one of seven votes she forged earlier than the House adjourned in 2023.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., voted most frequently for the place backed by Biden, agreeing with the president on 13 of 54 votes, or 24% of the time.
Aside from Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, who’s retiring, the checklist of House Republicans supporting Biden’s place most frequently included a handful of New Yorkers going through aggressive races this yr, in addition to Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa.
Republicans’ common help for Biden’s place general was 5%, the bottom ever for the occasion since CQ started calculating the determine in 1954. Democrats hit an identical low level in 2019, after they supported Trump’s place a median of 5% of the time.
One Republican didn’t vote to help Biden’s place in any respect final yr. Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna additionally didn’t vote on 10 of the 54 eligible votes, nevertheless.
How votes had been chosen
While it could appear easy, calculating presidential help scores just isn’t all the time easy.
CQ Roll Call assigns a presidential place to votes based mostly on whether or not the president expressed a transparent place earlier than members of Congress voted. Traditionally, this utilized to votes about which the Office of Management and Budget issued a proper assertion of administration coverage, or when there was another clear reply from the White House in regards to the views of the president. Nominations additionally all the time depend because the president sends the identify to the Senate.
When Trump was in workplace, that typically meant decoding posts on the platform now often called X (previously Twitter). And whereas it has gotten considerably extra clear below Biden, there have been challenges.
When the House voted on a joint decision searching for to overturn the Washington, D.C., City Council’s regulation overhauling the native legal code, OMB issued an announcement opposing the measure largely on dwelling rule grounds. “While we work towards making Washington, D.C. the 51st state of our Union, Congress should respect the District of Columbia’s autonomy to govern its own local affairs,” OMB stated Feb. 6, 2023.
Accordingly, CQ Roll Call’s staff monitoring ground exercise decided {that a} “no” vote within the House was in help of the president’s place. House Democrats appeared to concur with that interpretation, and nearly 85% of them voted towards the decision.
It handed, nevertheless, and earlier than it got here up within the Senate in March, Biden informed Democrats at a caucus lunch that he would signal it if it reached his desk. So Biden clearly was now not asking senators to oppose the measure, however he additionally was not clearly asking them to approve it. As a end result, the Senate vote on that measure just isn’t included among the many presidential help scores.
Individual members’ scores and the typical scores for his or her general occasion caucus or convention can even have discrepancies. Calculations of common scores by chamber and occasion are based mostly on all eligible “yea” or “nay” votes, whether or not or not all members participated. Under this system, common help and opposition scores are diminished when members select to not vote. Individual members’ scores, nevertheless, are based mostly solely on votes forged.
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