59% of voters in deep-blue California disapprove of Biden’s handling of inflation

President Biden’s handling of the current inflation is beginning to sour on even voters in one of the nation’s most Democratic states: California.

A new poll released Wednesday found that 59% of California voters disapproved of how Mr. Biden was dealing with inflation, compared to just 34% that approved. More broadly, 50% of the state’s voters disapprove of Mr. Biden’s management of the economy, while 45% approved.

“Democrats are doing a terrible job leading the country, and Californians know it,” said Torunn Sinclair, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.

The poll was conducted by the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkley. It showed Mr. Biden lodging an overall job approval rating of 50% among the state’s voters, compared to a 46% disapproval.

The results do not bode particularly well for the White House. California is one of the nation’s most liberal states, generally backing Democrats at the presidential level by more than 30 percentage points.

Democrats already are expected to lose seats this cycle, as the White House incumbent’s party historically has done poorly in the first midterm election of a new presidency.

“Our findings suggest not only that the President’s support has declined over the past year, it has also softened with fewer voters now strongly approving of Biden’s performance and with several traditional Democratic constituencies offering a more tepid evaluation than a year ago,” said Eric Schickler, the co-director of the Institute of Governmental Studies.

The poll found that Mr. Biden’s job approval rating had steadily declined among all voters, even including Democrats, over the past year.

Twenty-one percent of Democrats, 93% of Republicans, and 48% of independents in California disapproved of Mr. Biden’s job performance. Last April, only 7% of Democrats, 87% of Republicans and 34% of independents across California said the same.

Much of the ill-will toward Mr. Biden comes from his perceived mishandling of the economy and inflation — which has soared to 40-year highs over the past year.

The poll’s results closely mirror a CBS/YouGov poll released over the weekend showing 69% of U.S. adults across the country disapprove of Mr. Biden’s handling of inflation. That same poll found Mr. Biden hitting a new job approval low of 42% nationally.