According to polling conducted Sept. 28-30, 42 percent of Democratic women strongly approve of the president’s job performance, compared with 50 percent of Democratic men. It’s a gap that’s persisted since he took office on Jan. 20 but widened as the summertime resurgence of COVID-19 cases complicated the back-to-school season in August, which dovetailed with the tumult surrounding the Afghanistan withdrawal and a stymied Biden agenda on Capitol Hill…

“There are a lot of Democratic women who wanted a woman president,” said Nancy Bocskor, former director of the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at Texas Woman’s University, ticking off the names of some of Biden’s Democratic primary rivals such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “Democratic women said anybody but Donald Trump, but I don’t think he had a lot of leeway to start with.”

Biden’s lack of fervent support among female Democrats sets up another hurdle in the already uphill race for Democrats in the midterms, contests that traditionally serve as referenda on the incumbent presidency. Thirteen months out from the 2022 elections, 60 percent of male Democratic voters say they’re “extremely” or “very” enthusiastic about voting, while less than half (46 percent) of Democratic women said the same, according to a recent Morning Consult/Politico poll.