Former President Joe Biden still is being viewed as a potential liability, despite optimism among Democrats for the upcoming midterm elections.
Nine former Biden administration officials who are running for Congress or a Governorship are avoiding mentioning the former president in campaign materials, Axios reported.
Biden left office as a historically unpopular president, according to Gallup. Biden’s average approval rating for his four years in office was 42.2 percent, the second-worst since World War II. Only President Trump’s 41.1 percent average for his first term was worse than Biden’s.
By contrast, polls indicate most Democrats are feeling good about the party’s chances in the 2026 midterm elections. YouGov reported that voters currently favor Democrats over Republicans 44% to 38%. Also, the site reported that 84 percent of Democrats think the party will win the midterms.
According to Axios, Biden’s damaged brand is leading Democrats to distance themselves from the former president. Comparatively, former President Obama was viewed very much as an asset in the lead-up to the 2018 midterms.
For example, when former Biden ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink announced her campaign for a Michigan House seat, her video included images of presidents she served under, including Presidents Obama and George W. Bush, but did not include an image of Biden.
Ryan Vetticad, a Democrat campaigning for an Illinois House seat acknowledged to Axios that he left Biden out of campaign materials. “There’s a lot of things that Democrats did wrong in the 2024 cycle,” he told the outlet. “So, I want to chart a new way forward.”
