Why is Biden losing the support of non-white American Democrats?

Question

Recently, I've read an article on Reuters (emphasis mine):

However, a growing number of Americans disapprove of Biden's leadership on the economy, gun violence and taxation, with the biggest decline coming within Biden's Democratic Party, especially those under the age of 40, non-white Democrats or those who do not have a college degree.

I can understand losing rating in general - in fact, it's a tendency for each president, as I know - and it's normal. I can somewhat understand losing support from those who do not have college degrees, and those under the age of 40.

But why is a Democratic president losing the support of non-white Democrats? From what I've noticed, the Democratic Party is normally supported by all minorities, including racial. Why is this happening then?

Answer 1

Summary: It has to do with college education rates and Biden's view on bipartisanship

You have to understand that non white Americans as a whole are believe to have supported the Democratic Party with 50 percentage point margins at a minimum in presidential elections since 2008 based on exit polls and election results. It is also an oversimplification to say that it is normally supported by ... racial minorities. There is a decent 18 to 24% of non white voters which vote Republican.

These losses seem to be concentrated with non college educated voters. You have to understand that just because you are winning a group by 52% or so (which various sources put Biden's win at with non-White Americans) does not mean that every person in that group supports you. And, of course, there are independent voters involved too.

The article says that it is stronger with those without a college degree. Non white Americans have lower college education rates in general which might explain the swing since Republican policies are more appealing to lower social class individuals in recent years.

One reason is that Biden has a view of bi-partisanship. Approval rating does not necessarily mean how much people want to re-elect someone.

This image shows possible reason that this may be so. Though all major racial groups within the US have Democrats supporting finding common ground, that support is 12 points lower with non White Democrats. So it makes sense that Biden by pushing for bipartisanship may be alienating non-White Democrats and younger voters, the second of which tends to be more progressive than other groups of Democrats.

Answer 2

The analysis I'm seeing, and keep in mind it's still VERY early in all this, so take with the grainiest grain of salt ever, is that patience for Biden's bipartisanship strategy is being exhausted.

There's two side of this, one is that very few people understand the extent to which any given person - even the President - has essentially no power to force an agenda through. This is by design, it's kind of the whole point of democracies and republics (and the U.S. is a hybrid of the two). So there's some misguided sense that Biden could be doing more, and isn't out of a misplaced loyalty to being gracious in victory or whatever.

The other side of this, however, is that the Democrats have been - at least publicly, rhetorically - acting like they don't recognize the extent to which the Republicans have zero political incentive to be cooperative in any way; and gobs of incentive to play the role of Lucy-with-the-football to the Democrats' Charlie Brown.

Nonwhite support for the Democrats has never been as good as they seem to routinely believe ("normally supported by all minorities, including racial" is a dangerous assumption).

Answer 3

Non-White Democrats are more conservatives than Democrats as a whole :

White Democrats remain more likely than black or Hispanic Democrats to describe themselves as liberal. (...) In 2019, a majority (55%) of white Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters identified themselves as liberal (...)
By contrast, more black Democratic voters continue to characterize their views as moderate rather than liberal. In 2019, 43% of black Democrats called themselves moderate, 29% called themselves liberal and 25% called themselves conservative.(...)
Among Hispanic Democratic voters, 38% described their political views as moderate in 2019, while 37% called themselves liberal and 22% conservative.

As a consequence they were ovewhelmingly supporting Biden, a moderate Democrat, during the 2020 primary.

This could influence the current down-trend he is experiencing among them in two ways :

• Because Biden's support among non-White Democrats was especially high when he took office, it could only go downwards when citizens reassess their opinions in view of his politics.

• Biden's policy since reaching the White House has been more dynamic and arguably more liberal than what most observers expected. This might please many Democrats, but the most conservative among them (including many non-White Democrats) will feel less comfotrable about it.