By Jason Lange
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's approval rating edged closer to the lowest level of his presidency just two weeks before U.S. midterm elections that will shape the rest of this term, a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll completed on Tuesday found.
The two-day national poll found that 39% of Americans approve of Biden's job performance, a percentage point lower than a week earlier.
Biden's unpopularity is helping drive the view that Republicans will win control of the U.S. House of Representatives and possibly also the Senate on Nov. 8. Control of even one chamber of Congress would give Republicans the power to bring Biden's legislative agenda to a halt.
Taking office in January 2021 in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Biden's term has been marked by the economic scars of the global health crisis, including soaring inflation. This year, his approval rating drifted to as low as 36% in May and June.
In this week's Reuters/Ipsos poll, one third of respondents picked the economy as the country's biggest problem, a much larger share than the one in 10 who picked crime. Only one in 20 pointed to the end of national abortion rights.
The poll, conducted online in English throughout the United States, gathered responses from 1,005 adults, including 447 Democrats and 369 Republicans. It has a credibility interval - a measure of precision - of four percentage points.