Data from a Five Thirty Eight/Ipsos poll released last Thursday shows that inflation is the main issue U.S. voters are concerned about as the nation counts down the final days to the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
“As we were getting closer to election day, it seemed like this was a topic that was more top of mind for people,” said Geoffrey Skelley, a Five Thirty Eight senior elections analyst, during a podcast episode published Tuesday.
In the weeks leading up to the elections, Audacy’s “The Homestretch” podcast has explored inflation and other key issues such as abortion, Latino voting, crime and election integrity. Polling experts interviewed in the final episode launching Thursday at 6 a.m. ET agree that inflation is still top of mind for voters.
Five Thirty Eight’s poll found that a whopping 79% of Republican voters cite inflation as their top issue going into the midterms. While a sizeable portion of Democrats are also concerned about inflation (47%), most (56%) cited political polarization and extremism as their top concern. Overall, 54% of Americans polled consider inflation their top issue.
In an effort to stop inflation through slowing down the economy, The Federal Reserve Bank has raised interest rates since March. Jerome Powell, chair of the Fed, announced a fourth consecutive 75 basis point rate hike Wednesday.
“Today, the [the Federal Open Market Committee] raised our policy interest rate by 75 basis points, and we continue to anticipate that ongoing increases will be appropriate,” said Powell in a statement. “We are moving our policy stance purposefully to a level that will be sufficiently restrictive to return inflation to 2%.”
“So as you know – and you heard – you hear us say this many times, the Fed is independent,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a press briefing Thursday ahead of the Fed’s announcement. “It’s an independent agency. And we believe – the President believes that it has the – it has the best monetary policies to address inflation.”
However, some economists are critical of the Fed’s approach. The Brookings Institution noted Larry Summer’s argument that 2% target is outdated, economist Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics told “The Homestretch” that raising rates in general won’t work to fix COVID-19 pandemic related inflation.
Even if the Fed is able to bring down inflation – which rose 8.2% in the 12-month period ending in September, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – interest rate hikes make it more difficult for consumers to buy things in the short term and they bring recession risks.
President Joe Biden and his administration have tried to combat inflation through the Inflation Reduction Act and other measures. Jean-Pierre stressed Thursday that Republicans want to repeal the legislation if they control Congress after the midterms.
“That’s the first thing that they want to do,” she said.
Thus far, the administration has managed to lower gas prices by $1.25 per gallon since June and bring down Medicare premiums, according to Jean-Pierre.
“And to be clear, gas prices would fall if oil companies – they’d fall even further if the oil companies used their record profits to help American families instead of their shareholders,” said Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday.
Jean-Pierre also said they are planning to take additional steps to lower food and heating costs.
While inflation is the overall top concern in the nation, likely Democratic and likely Republican voters believe other issues are more pressing, according to the Five Thirty Eight/Ipsos poll, which will be the Five Thirty Eight’s final poll before the midterms.
“Among Democratic likely voters, political extremism, abortion, crime and gun violence, and climate change are all top tier issues,” said the poll results. “Among Republican likely voters, government debt, immigration, crime and gun violence, and election security are top worries.”
It appears that Americans “are essentially equally divided between Democrats, Republicans, and neither side,” making the ultimate outcome hard to predict. However, less than a third said Democrats have earned another two years controlling the government, and just over a quarter said Republicans have made a good case for why they should have control of it.
“Americans as a whole are clearly disillusioned with the political offering,” according to the poll results.
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