Has Biden kept his campaign promises? Here’s what Americans said in a new poll

President Joe Biden has not lived up to his campaign promises in the eyes of most Americans, according to a new poll, which comes as the 82-year-old president prepares to leave office.

In the latest Associated Press-NORC poll, just 22% of respondents said Biden kept the promises he made while running for the White House — which included expanding health care access, protecting abortion, rebuilding the economy and bringing back American global leadership.

Meanwhile, 39% said he tried to keep his promises but failed, and 38% said he has not honored his commitments at all.

While there were differences in opinion across partisan lines, there was an across-the-board consensus that Biden had not managed to fulfill the pledges he made on the campaign trail.

Among Democrats, 49% said the president tried but failed to honor his commitments, and 8% said he didn’t keep them at all. Meanwhile, 42% said he kept his campaign promises.

In contrast, 70% of Republicans said Biden has not kept his promises at all, and 25% said he tried to but failed. Just 4% said he lived up to his promises.

Independents were somewhere in the middle. Forty-four percent said the president has not kept his promises at all; 43% said he tried but failed, and 12% said he lived up to them.

Conducted between Dec. 5 and 9, the poll sampled 1,251 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

How does Biden compare to his predecessors?

When President-elect Donald Trump left office after his first term, his polling numbers were largely similar to Biden’s.

In a December 2017 AP-NORC poll, 23% of respondents said Trump kept his promises — marking a 1-point difference from Biden. In contrast, 30% said Trump tried but failed, and 45% said he had not honored his commitments at all — a 7-point difference from Biden.

By comparison, former President Barack Obama left office with the best polling numbers of the three men — though they were not entirely enviable.

In a December 2016 AP-NORC poll, 32% of respondents said Obama had kept his campaign promises — marking a 10-point difference from Biden. Meanwhile, 44% said he tried but failed to fulfill his promises, and 22% said he did not keep them at all.

This story was originally published January 13, 2025 at 8:51 AM with the headline "Has Biden kept his campaign promises? Here’s what Americans said in a new poll."