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 common assist charge for his place on votes in Congress drop final yr, to 70.4% from 94.9% a yr earlier, CQ Roll Name’s annual Vote Research evaluation discovered.
Inside his personal occasion, nevertheless, assist for Biden’s place on votes was unchanged within the Senate. It dropped within the Home with Republicans setting the ground agenda, however remained above charges set throughout President Barack Obama’s time period.
Biden had a mean assist 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 Home.
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-about 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 hen.
These setbacks have been successfully non permanent, nevertheless. As with different instances, the president ultimately 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 temporary replacement, Laphonza Butler, voted with Biden on 100% of roll calls the place his place was clear.
Amongst 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 could challenge Biden on a third-party ticket, voted in opposition to nominees with some regularity. He sided with the president 76% of the time on all votes, and just 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 facet, 9 senators had total presidential assist 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 continuously in settlement with the president on nominations and associated procedural votes have been Susan Collins of Maine at 80% and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska at 72%. They have 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.
Home assist dropped
Biden obtained an analogous 95% assist charge from Home Democrats on a smaller universe of votes, because the chamber doesn’t vote on nominations. However that was down from 99% within the earlier two years, when California Democrat Nancy Pelosi was speaker.
Final yr, 4 members disagreed with Biden’s place at the very least 30% of the time, led by Jared Golden of Maine, whose district gave its Electoral School 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% have been Reps. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, 36%; and Don Davis, D-N.C., 33%.
On the Republican facet, solely 9 Republicans voted with the president greater than 10% of the time. That checklist contains 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 one among seven votes she solid earlier than the Home 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.
Except for Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, who’s retiring, the checklist of Home Republicans supporting Biden’s place most frequently included a handful of New Yorkers dealing with aggressive races this yr, in addition to Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa.
Republicans’ common assist for Biden’s place total was 5%, the bottom ever for the occasion since CQ started calculating the determine in 1954. Democrats hit an analogous low level in 2019, once they supported Trump’s place a mean of 5% of the time.
One Republican didn’t vote to assist 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 have been chosen
Whereas it could appear easy, calculating presidential assist scores isn’t all the time simple.
CQ Roll Name assigns a presidential place to votes based mostly on whether or not the president expressed a transparent place earlier than members of Congress voted. Historically, this utilized to votes about which the Workplace of Administration and Price range issued a proper statement of administration policy, or when there was another clear reply from the White Home concerning the views of the president. Nominations additionally all the time rely because the president sends the title to the Senate.
When Trump was in workplace, that generally 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 Home voted on a joint decision in search of to overturn the Washington, D.C., Metropolis Council’s regulation overhauling the native prison code, OMB issued a press release opposing the measure largely on dwelling rule grounds. “Whereas we work in direction of making Washington, D.C. the 51st state of our Union, Congress ought to respect the District of Columbia’s autonomy to manipulate its personal native affairs,” OMB said Feb. 6, 2023.
Accordingly, CQ Roll Name’s group monitoring flooring exercise decided {that a} “no” vote within the Home was in assist of the president’s place. Home Democrats appeared to concur with that interpretation, and almost 85% of them voted in opposition to the decision.
It passed, nevertheless, and earlier than it got here up within the Senate in March, Biden told Democrats at a caucus lunch that he would signal it if it reached his desk. So Biden clearly was not asking senators to oppose the measure, however he additionally was not clearly asking them to approve it. Because of this, the Senate vote on that measure isn’t included among the many presidential assist scores.
Particular person members’ scores and the common scores for his or her total occasion caucus or convention also can 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. Underneath this technique, common assist and opposition scores are decreased when members select to not vote. Particular person members’ scores, nevertheless, are based mostly solely on votes solid.
___
©2024 CQ-Roll Name, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Go to cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content material Company, LLC.
Source link
