President Joe Biden entered 2023 with a divided Congress and his fellow Democrats holding the narrowest of majorities in the Senate. And like recent predecessors who lost one-party control in midterm elections, Biden saw the average support rate for his position on votes in Congress drop last year, to 70.4% from 94.9% a year earlier, CQ Roll Call’s annual Vote Studies analysis found.
Within his own party, however, support for Biden’s position on votes was unchanged in the Senate. It dropped in the House with Republicans setting the floor agenda, but remained above rates set during President Barack Obama’s term.
Biden had an average support score among members of the Senate Democratic Caucus of 95% in 2023. That’s in line with previous years of his presidency and on par with the numbers attained by Obama when Democrats had the Senate majority and Republicans controlled the House.
Of the 142 votes where his position was clear, Biden lost 14 in the Senate, with 11 coming on resolutions of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act. The resolutions are considered under expedited procedures requiring only a simple majority to pass, and covered such areas as overturning rules giving protected status to the northern long-eared bat and the lesser prairie chicken.
Those setbacks were effectively temporary, however. As with other cases, the president eventually vetoed the resolutions, and advocates’ attempts to override him did not get close to the two-thirds vote needed.
Seventeen Senate Democrats, including both the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and her temporary replacement, Laphonza Butler, voted with Biden on 100% of roll calls where his position was clear.
Among Democrats, only Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia voted with the president less than 94% of the time. Manchin, who has decided not to seek reelection this year and could challenge Biden on a third-party ticket, voted…
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