Ball State University’s 2023 Hoosier Survey – the Bowen Center for Public Affairs’ annual nonpartisan public policy study – is once again providing insight into Indiana residents’ thoughts about the effectiveness of President Joe Biden and Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb.
The center on Tuesday released the second of three rounds of results from this year’s Hoosier Survey, which represents the pulse of the state regarding the most pressing issues facing Indiana residents.
Highlights of some of the results, which can be found on the Bowen Center for Public Affairs website, include:
- For the question, “Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the job Joe Biden is doing as president?” 57.8% of respondents selected “Disapprove,” 32.8% selected “Approve,” while 9.3% selected “Don’t know/Not sure.”
The results are similar to last year’s Hoosier Survey question about President Biden, in which 58.2% of respondents disapproved of his job performance, 35.3% approved, and 6.5% selected no answer.
“Many national polls have found that President Biden is not popular right now, and given he lost Indiana by a large margin in 2020, it is not surprising that he remains unpopular in the state,” said Dr. Chad Kinsella, director of the Bowen Center for Public Affairs and associate professor of political science at Ball State.
· For the question, “Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the job Eric Holcomb is doing as governor of Indiana?” 42.2% of respondents selected “Approve,” 34.5% selected “Disapprove,” while 23.3% selected “Don’t know/Not sure.”
This year’s results represent a slight decrease in Holcomb’s approval rating over last year’s Hoosier Survey, in which 48.7% of respondents selected they “Approve,” while 34.7% selected “Disapprove,” and 16.7% did not answer.
“One aspect that is the most interesting to me is the high number of respondents who select ‘Don’t know/Not sure’ to this question,” Kinsella said. “What has been found in past Hoosier Surveys and other state surveys is that there are large numbers of people, anywhere from 25 to 33% of respondents, who do not know who the governor of their state is. Overall, Governor Holcomb remains popular, but there are a lot of people in Indiana and across the country that are not aware of state politics and politicians.”
This year’s Hoosier Survey featured interviews with 600 Indiana adults (age 18 or older). Respondents were asked several closed-end questions concerning policy related to local, state and national politics, as well as demographic questions. No respondents were asked to identify themselves at any point during the survey, and all data is maintained as anonymous.
A first-of-its-kind public policy survey for the Bowen Center for Public Affairs, the inaugural Hoosier Survey was conducted in 2008. It is the only Indiana-specific survey in the state that examines Hoosiers’ opinions on a variety of national, state and local issues. Several demographics are collected with each survey, including gender, political party, ideology, age, education, race, income and religious service attendance.
A complete listing of all Hoosier Survey results can be found on the Bowen Center for Public Affairs website at bsu.edu/academics/centersandinstitutes/bowencenter.
