Biden Approval Ratings: How Religious Groups View The President's Job Performance

The numbers are in on Joe Biden’s performance among various religious groups, suggesting that while many demographics remain politically deadlocked, the new president has managed to make some surprising inroads.

Some results of the Pew Research poll are unlikely to come as a surprise: Black protestants and the religiously unaffiliated rate Biden highest, but his supports among white Evangelicals continue to struggle.

Several groups, however, buck the trend of Biden’s ratings being a mirror image of Donald Trump’s numbers during the same period.

White Catholics, traditionally a conservative demographic, are split practically down the middle on both Trump and Biden, supporting them by 51% and 52% respectively.

White, non-Evangelical Protestants show the same trend to a lesser degree. Just over half approved of Trump, 52%, with 53% now disapproving of Biden.

That political entrenchment is even stronger among white Evangelical Protestants, who approved of Trump at a rate of 73% and now disapprove of Biden by almost exactly the same margin, at 75%.

Black Protestants show the inverse, disapproving of Trump by 74% and approving of Biden by 81%.

The poll also contains something of a wrinkle. When asked whether they “like” Biden and Trump, and given an option to express mixed feelings, some of Trump’s strongest backers show signs of cracking.

White Evangelical Protestants reported mixed feelings at a rate of 44%, a larger group than either liking or disliking him. Their dislike of Biden is more solid: Only 27% say their feelings are mixed, with the slack picked up by the “dislike” camp.

Biden’s coalition doesn’t have the same degree of hesitancy. Only 13% said their feelings were mixed, while just 2% saying they dislike him.

White, non-Evangelical Protestants showed the same lack of commitment to Trump and more decisive feelings on Biden as their Evangelical cousins, but those who made up their minds during the Biden presidency seem to have split more evenly between liking and disliking Biden.