Biden receives ‘unusual’ poll bounce after State of the Union

President Joe Biden this week saw a marked increase in his approval rating after his State of the Union speech, a spike one pollster called “unusual” simply for its sheer size.

An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey found Biden’s approval at 47 percent, up from 39 percent, following Tuesday’s speech.

The eight-point spike was an “unusual bounce,”  Marist Institute for Public Opinion Director Lee Miringoff said of the numbers. The rise in approval “gets him back to where he was pre-Afghanistan,” prior to the administration’s disastrous withdrawal from that country.

Biden saw similar jumps in specific approval categories, receiving eight-point boosts in his handling of both the economy and the COVID pandemic. 

The spikes were driven almost entirely by Democrats and Independents, though notably even Republicans recorded an increase in approval for the president.