Biden's handling of Ukraine appears to be breaking fever of negativity around his approval ratings

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President Joe Biden’s approval ratings are still at least a handful of points (some would argue nearly 10) away from where Democrats want them to be heading into November. But Biden’s handling of Ukraine does appear to have, for now, broken a negative fever that had plagued his approvals for months.

An overall reversal in trends presents very clearly in Civiqs tracking, which doesn’t tend to be as reactive (i.e. bouncy) as other polling.

But FiveThirtyEight’s aggregate over the last handful of days also shows Biden getting a bit of a bump.

It’s nearly impossible to pinpoint the mix of issues that is fueling the uptick, but Biden’s handling of Ukraine is certainly possible. In Civiqs polling data, Biden started charting a more positive path shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine and, days later, the president delivered his first State of the Union address.

Navigator Research, a consortium of progressive pollsters, also released a survey Friday that showed strong support for the president’s actions regarding the conflict.

• 75% of Americans support the economic sanctions President Biden and other world leaders have placed on Russia
• 66% support the announcement that the U.S. plans to welcome as many as 100,000 Ukrainian refugees who have fled the war.

Additionally, Navigator’s survey is the second poll this week that found broad support for President Biden’s statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot remain in power.” Navigator found 67% supported Biden’s remark while 20% opposed it (a net-plus of 47 points). When the group framed the question without using Biden’s name, support grew several points to 72% agree/14% disagree.

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The combined support on several fronts seems to have yielded dividends, with an uptick in both Biden’s approval rating on the matter and the number of respondents saying he’s making the right decisions on Ukraine.

Since late March, President Biden has seen a net improvement for his handling of Ukraine of 6 points in the Navigator polling, although he’s still 4 points underwater at 44% approve, 48% disapprove.

In terms of whether he’s making the “right decisions” on Ukraine, Biden has also seen a 6-point increase since late March, with 58% supporting his policies while 42% say he’s making the “wrong decisions.”

Overall, Navigator concludes, “Biden’s approval ratings and the perception he is making the right decisions on Ukraine have both improved as a wide range of actions taken by the United States remain popular.”

The positive shift is particularly good news for Democrats as they set their sights on the midterms. President Biden could also continue to see gains among Democratic base voters after the historic confirmation of Supreme Court Justice-designate Ketanji Brown Jackson.