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The Graphic Truth: US presidents' midterm pain

November 04, 2021
Carlos Santamaria
and
Ari Winkleman
The Graphic Truth: US presidents' midterm pain: presidential approval ratings after one year in US history
Ari Winkleman

Things aren't looking good for Joe Biden. And it could get worse for him a year from now, when the Democratic Party could lose control of the US Congress in the 2022 midterm election. But this dynamic isn't unique to the Biden administration. Historically, in the president's first term his party has almost always lost seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterms. What's more, the president's own approval rating also tends to take a hit as the vote nears. We compare the approval ratings of the last 10 US presidents one year before the midterm election and on the eve of the vote, as well as the number of House/Senate seats lost/won by the party in the White House at the time.

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