That improvement comes as the president continues to consider his options for the 2024 presidential election amid speculation about his future and voters’ apparent concern about his age.
The Marist poll published on Thursday found that Biden’s approval rating is now 43 percent—up from 42 percent in mid-November—while disapproval of the job he’s doing has fallen from 54 percent to 48 percent over the same period.
The poll was conducted from December 6 to 8 among 1,312 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.
Biden’s disapproval rating in the latest poll is the lowest it’s been since September’s Marist survey, when 46 percent of respondents said they disapproved of the president.
The president has said he intends to seek a second term in 2024 and that Vice-President Kamala Harris will be his running mate, although Biden has (as yet) made no formal announcement, and not launched an official campaign.
While the process of nominating presidential candidates will not begin until early 2024, former President Donald Trump has already formally declared his intention to run.
A recent CNN/SSRS poll found that majorities of Republicans and Democrats do not want to see a 2024 rematch between Trump and Biden, while a Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll conducted for Newsweek found that 58 percent of eligible voters don’t believe Biden should run for president.
Among those who said Biden shouldn’t run again, 42 percent cited his age as the most significant reason. The president celebrated his 80th birthday on November 20 and is the oldest serving president in U.S. history.
Biden is reportedly sensitive to the fact that his age is frequently mentioned in the media, with Politico reporting on Tuesday that Biden told an ally earlier this year: “You think I don’t know how f***ng old I am?”
If he chooses to run for another term, Biden will be 81 at the time of the next presidential election and turn 82 shortly after it. Trump is 76 and will be 77 by the time of the next election.
The president’s approval rating has also improved in a Quinnipiac University poll published on Wednesday, which found that 43 percent of registered voters approved of him (up from 36 percent in November) and his disapproval rating was 49 percent, down from 55 percent in Quinnipiac’s previous poll.
The same poll found that Trump had a 31 percent favorable rating among registered voters, while 59 percent had an unfavorable view of him. That was his lowest favorability among registered voters in Quinnipiac’s polling since July, 2015.
Newsweek has asked the White House for comment.
