--- title: Obama's Approval Rating Hits New Low in WSJ/NBC News Poll description: The President's approval rating has dropped to 41 percent, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, and many of those surveyed said they wouldn't support candidates in the November elections who support Obama canonical: https://time.com/21121/poll-obamas-approval-rating-sinks-to-new-low/ author: Nate Rawlings article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-12T11:35:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:43:04.847Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama's Approval Rating Hits New Low in WSJ/NBC News Poll og:description: The President's approval rating has dropped to 41 percent, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, and many of those surveyed said they wouldn't support candidates in the November elections who support Obama og:url: https://time.com/21121/poll-obamas-approval-rating-sinks-to-new-low/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt736f49ebb647683b/6986850ff983e743ca04cb25/42-56642961-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: President Barack Obama on the South Lawn of the White House on March 10 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama's Approval Rating Hits New Low in WSJ/NBC News Poll twitter:description: The President's approval rating has dropped to 41 percent, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, and many of those surveyed said they wouldn't support candidates in the November elections who support Obama twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt736f49ebb647683b/6986850ff983e743ca04cb25/42-56642961-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Poll: Obama's Approval Rating Sinks To New Low > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Nate Rawlings](https://time.com/author/nate-rawlings/) ## Nate Rawlings Mar 12, 2014 11:35 AM UTC  President Barack Obama on the South Lawn of the White House on March 10, 2014. President Barack Obama on the South Lawn of the White House on March 10, 2014. Olivier Douliery—Pool/Corbis by [Nate Rawlings](https://time.com/author/nate-rawlings/) ## Nate Rawlings Mar 12, 2014 11:35 AM UTC President Obama’s job approval rating sank to a new low of 41 percent in a [Wall Street _Journal_/NBC News poll](http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/A%5FU.S.%20news/US-news-PDFs/14133%20MARCH%20NBC-WSJ%20Poll%20%283-12%20Release%29.pdf) released Tuesday, forecasting political headwinds for the Democratic Party in the months leading up to November’s midterm elections. Forty-eight percent of respondents in the [survey](http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Sections/NEWS/A%5FU.S.%20news/US-news-PDFs/14133%20MARCH%20NBC-WSJ%20Poll%20%283-12%20Release%29.pdf) said that they are less likely to vote for a candidate who is a solid supporter of of Obama, versus 26 percent who said they are more likely to support a candidate that supports the president. More than a third of respondents remained neutral, with 41 percent saying that their vote will have nothing to do with the president. Neither party, however, has a solid edge in terms of popularity. Republicans fared one point better than Democrats – 44 percent to 43 percent – on the question of which party voters would rather have running Congress, which is within the poll’s margin of error. “What makes 2014 so different \[from past cycles\] is that the voters are in a rebellious state against the whole Congress and the establishment in Washington,” Democratic pollster Fred Yang, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff, [told NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/gop-may-reap-rewards-obamas-unpopularity-midterms-poll-finds-n50341). But Yang acknowledged that Democrats face an uphill battle in this fall’s midterms. “There is an advantage for Republicans right now,” he said. For Republicans, having the president effectively sidelined is the most important factor. “The president is being taken off the field as a Democratic positive,” McInturff said. “When you have the most powerful person in the world \[on the sidelines\], that’s a big deal.” \[[_NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/gop-may-reap-rewards-obamas-unpopularity-midterms-poll-finds-n50341)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/21121/poll-obamas-approval-rating-sinks-to-new-low/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/21121/poll-obamas-approval-rating-sinks-to-new-low/"},"headline":"Poll: Obama's Approval Rating Sinks To New Low","datePublished":"2014-03-12T11:35:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:43:04.847Z","description":"The President's approval rating has dropped to 41 percent, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, and many of those surveyed said they wouldn't support candidates in the November elections who support Obama","url":"https://time.com/21121/poll-obamas-approval-rating-sinks-to-new-low/","keywords":["Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt736f49ebb647683b/6986850ff983e743ca04cb25/42-56642961-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nate Rawlings","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nate-rawlings/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt736f49ebb647683b/6986850ff983e743ca04cb25/42-56642961-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Barack Obama on the South Lawn of the White House on March 10 2014.","caption":"President Barack Obama on the South Lawn of the White House on March 10 2014.","creditText":"Olivier Douliery—Pool/Corbis","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/21121/poll-obamas-approval-rating-sinks-to-new-low/","name":"Poll: Obama's Approval Rating Sinks To New Low"}}]}] ```