Washington ( CNN ) -- As Democrats head into the last throes of the campaign season , the party and the president are facing some of their lowest favorability and approval ratings , respectively , according to two new surveys . President Barack Obama hit his lowest point in the eyes of the public according to that poll , with just 40 % of Americans approving of his job performance , the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll released Wednesday shows . An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll also released Wednesday handed Obama a similar 42 % approval rating . And Obama could be pulling down his party as just 39 % of Americans hold a favorable view of the Democratic Party , the lowest in modern history according to the Washington Post/ABC News poll . Obama steps ( cautiously ) back into campaign mode . That 's a ten-point drop for Democrats from the same poll in August and the decline comes in part from a dropoff among African-Americans and women -- two key voter blocs Democrats will need to turn out on Nov. 4 . The numbers come less than three weeks before Election Day in a cycle where the President 's sagging approval numbers have been blamed for impacting Democratic candidates , especially in crucial toss-up Senate races that could help Republicans take full control of Congress . Republicans have picked up on the President 's low approval ratings in battleground states by linking Democratic -- and even independent candidates in Kansas and South Dakota -- to the president . Chamber ad seeks to tie independent to Obama . And Obama has mostly avoided the campaign trail this cycle , particularly Senate contests . But Obama will hit the road to help seven gubernatorial candidates mobilize supporters in the final weeks of campaigning . Some Democratic Senate candidates have attempted to deflect Republican attacks throughout the campaign by distancing themselves from Obama policies on key issues . Kentucky 's Alison Lundergan Grimes , for example , declared in an ad that she 's `` not Barack Obama . '' And a range of issues could be shaking Americans ' confidence in the President and his party : from the ISIS threat to the public fears over the Ebola disease that has made it onto U.S. soil . Republicans continued to register lower favorability marks than Democrats with just 33 % expressing a positive view of the GOP . And among independents , Democrats also edged out the GOP with 33 % favorability compared to 28 % for Republicans . But the public does n't parse on partisan politics when it comes to rating Congress , slamming the legislature with an 83 % disapproval rating according to a September CNN/ORC poll .
Democrats hit a 30-year low in favorability ratings . A pair of survey released Wednesday showed sagging ratings for Democrats and the president . The numbers emerged in the last three weeks of an election where GOP has tried to link Dem . candidates to Obama . President Obama is at an all - time low 40 % approval rating .