2026 midterm elections: voters split on economy, labor and immigration as Trump tries to change the subject
Tens of millions of Americans will vote in the 2026 midterm elections next month, and the voter panelists behind one new report name economic malaise, labor and the administration's immigration crackdown as their top issues. President Donald Trump and his allies are spending the closing stretch campaigning across the country.
2026 midterm elections: voters split on economy, labor and immigration as Trump tries to change the subject
What voters say is at stake
With Election Day weeks away, the voters consulted for the report describe an electorate pulled in different directions by pocketbook worries, workplace conditions and border policy.
- Justin Daniels, 45, of Detroit, Michigan, says the most significant issue in this election is economic malaise.
- Yajaira Martinez, 43, of Pharr, Texas, names labor as her top concern.
- Scott Akridge, 60, of Marietta, Georgia, points to the administration's brutal crackdown on immigration as the issue that matters most to him.
Three voters, three different elections - and the survey testing those instincts shows how much the ground has moved since spring.
A shifting issue landscape
According to the report, respondents were asked which party they trusted on a dozen issues, and on all but one - crime - a greater share picked Democrats than Republicans.
The economy has flipped most sharply. Republicans commanded a one-point lead over Democrats there in April; they are now nine points behind. Immigration has turned the other way. A five-point Republican lead in April has reversed, and Democrats are now ahead by two points.
Candidates riding cost-of-living concerns
In Alaska, Mary Peltola is running for the US Senate and hopes cost-of-living concerns will make her the first Democrat to win the seat in nearly two decades. In parts of interior Alaska, she has seen paper towels retail for $40, a half gallon of oat milk go for $21, and freezers priced up to four times their Anchorage cost.
Some Arctic Ocean communities, she has heard, now face power bills of $1,500 a month because they rely on generators and war-driven diesel costs.
"Nobody can afford that," Peltola said in an interview.
Cost-of-living politics reach into Republican-held territory too. In Kansas, where voters have not sent a Democrat to the US Senate since 1932, candidate Adam Hamilton has pledged to reduce partisan heat, and some recent polls have put him ahead.
The subject-changing effort
President Trump has spent the closing week of the midterm elections on the road: Kansas on Monday, North Carolina on Tuesday, then South Carolina on Wednesday, Iowa on Thursday and Florida on Friday, with Georgia and Michigan to follow on the weekend. JD Vance is on a cross-country tour of his own.
The report describes a months-long effort to move the conversation away from the economy. Over the summer, senior US officials worked to cast the Democratic party as riddled with communism. Come September, Trump put forward a $5,000 "Trump dividend" for every US citizen - an idea that drew wide criticism as a pre-election bribe.
Foreign affairs has supplied other pivots. Trump launched the Iran war in February and spent much of it claiming it was about to end. More recently he has turned to Ukraine, striking a stunning deal to buy Russian diesel, pausing some sanctions on Moscow and suggesting Volodymyr Zelenskyy should quit.
Vance has leaned on unrest abroad. After protests in France that began as student demonstrations over crumbling schools and living costs, he said it showed "western liberals" having "imported the third world" into their countries, adding: "And I hope Americans are paying attention. This is the future congressional Democrats seek for your country."
Trump himself has used public appearances to echo such warnings in recent days, according to reporting by Joseph Gedeon and David Smith.
His campaign swing was set to continue with appearances in Georgia and Michigan over the weekend, per the report.
