Cost of living draws broadest concern across party lines
The Guardian launched its 2026 midterm voter panel on October 9, publishing the responses of nine Americans from eight states as the country prepares to deliver what the outlet described as its first national verdict on the second presidency of Donald Trump. The November 3 elections will decide control of the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the governorships in 36 states, and the Guardian said the results could have a huge impact on Trump’s final two years in office.
The Guardian said its reporters interviewed voters across the political spectrum about issues from cost of living, immigration and healthcare to the war in Iran and whether they trust their political leaders, and that the published answers are highlights of those conversations.
The panelists are Justin Daniels, 45, of Detroit, Michigan, an economics student who identifies as a Democrat and progressive; Yajaira Martinez, 43, of Pharr, Texas, an independent whom the Guardian described as a disaffected Trump voter; Scott Akridge, 60, of Marietta, Georgia, a Democrat and liberal; Caleb Davis, 22, of Greenville, South Carolina, a Republican and conservative; Sally Rasmussen, 62, of Medford, Wisconsin, an independent and progressive; Morgan Akin, 85, of Redding, California, a Democrat and moderate; Sharon Anderson, 70, of Etowah, Tennessee, a Maga Republican; David Ferrari, 19, of Tallahassee, Florida, a Democrat and progressive; and Patti Fucci, 46, of Roswell, Georgia, an independent and moderate.
Cost of living drew the broadest concern across party lines. Daniels said he has noticed that Americans work more while falling further behind. “Why is it that my grandfather could work an eight-hour union job and have enough to take care of five or six kids, and yet I work the same job and I’m struggling to get by?” he said. “That makes no sense to me. I don’t understand why so many CEOs are saying companies are making record profits while people have to have two and three jobs.”
Daniels said his own finances had deteriorated quickly. “Economically, much worse. It’s worse than it was two weeks ago. I have a pickup truck. Filling my gas two weeks ago, two months ago, was $80. Now, it’s $120. I’m expecting it to be $150,” he said. He said his utilities bill was likely to rise and that groceries would go up “just because shipping is going to go up,” adding: “I’m not getting a raise yet, again, we’re making record profits. Who are those profits going to? Not you and me, not the people who need the money.”
Akin said he had just filled the tank of his Honda CRV before the interview. “It cost me $78 to fill it up,” he said. Akin also criticized the administration, saying Trump was “benefiting from his office, increasing his income [by] billions of dollars, while Americans are suffering with high gas prices and food prices and so forth,” and describing “destroying public structures, buildings and so forth in Washington DC, and then building new ones that have no relevance whatsoever to democracy or the people of the country.”
Anderson offered a contrasting account of her household’s situation. Both she and her husband are retired — she from a clerical role in education, he from an assembly-line job at General Motors. “But I’d say that we’re better off because I feel safer. I feel more hopeful for the future,” she said. “The economy, of course – things could be better with gas prices, but I think that that’s a temporary problem right now.”
Martinez said her biggest problem was labor. “My biggest hit that I’m having right now is labor. I don’t have labor. I don’t have workers that can, you know, finish the houses as fast as we used to,” she said. “It causes a ripple effect when it comes to supply and demand – houses taking longer, interest rates going higher, so everything is just going up in value.”
Ferrari, 19, said his parents’ auto-industry business went under during “Trump 2.” “What sort of started in Trump’s disastrous Covid response, that was one of the first times that my parents had to take out a big loan that they weren’t sure about,” he said. “In their industry, the tariffs have completely shaken up everything. It has caused them to have a lot less certainty, and eventually that built up, and they couldn’t go on any longer.” He said his parents have a new business in the works and that the family is “doing OK,” but that the failure “did personally affect me.”
Immigration enforcement drew some of the sharpest reactions. Akridge named ICE as the issue with the most powerful negative impact on the country. “It would be likely ICE. I feel like that right now is having the largest, most powerful negative impact on people in this country. And it’s very blatant, and I feel like stopping that would be a good touchstone for how we all move forward,” he said.
Fucci, a Venezuelan American who said she has spent 32 years in the country, described a changed sense of security. “I never thought, in 32 years, as a Venezuelan American, that I had to carry my passport with me everywhere I go. I never thought that I will live in fear in the United States, even though I’m an American citizen,” she said.
Rasmussen said the treatment of immigrant communities amounted to “the assault upon not only the immigrant community, but every community that he sees as being vulnerable.” She added: “Giving the American people or a certain sector within the American population permission to be cruel and to exalt in this public display of cruelty – we are going to spend a long time recovering from that.”
The war in Iran divided the panel. Davis linked the conflict to Trump’s foreign policy, citing what he called a recent Trump deal on Greenland. “His recent deal to establish or re-establish American hegemony in Greenland is a really big deal. Making sure that America has access to Greenland, and China does not, is a very important thing that Donald Trump has done,” Davis said. “Also, with the Iran war, it is very important what we’re doing there, and I hope for as quick and decisive a success as can possibly be reached.”
Anderson said she wanted the conflict to “end with the least amount of death. I’m a mother of five children. I have three sons and two daughters. I have one grandson. I don’t want any kind of war because war brings death. But I think that the person that’s able to end this conflict is in leadership today.” Davis said he saw no path to a negotiated settlement with Iran’s leadership. “I don’t think a peace deal can be reached with the existing regime,” he said. “Regime change in the Middle East has been very hard to master, so it really would have to be a move of the people in Iran. The propaganda war may be the most important front for a truly lasting peace to be achieved.”
Akridge called for withdrawal. “At this point, we just need to walk away. There’s no winning; they are winning. We need to cut our losses and move on,” he said. “I’m a little shocked that with our trillion-dollar military, one little country like Iran has somehow managed to deplete our resources. To reasonably manage a war and win, we have shown ourselves incapable. At this point, to save face, we need to spin some PR and walk away.”
Daniels, who said he is a veteran, said he was trying to choose his words carefully, then referred to “the conviction of Donald Trump,” “the conviction of Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes,” and “the conviction of Pete Hegseth.” Martinez offered a shorter verdict: “Let’s be realistic: war is created for money to be created. I just feel everything just needs to end. Everybody, every country, needs to focus on themselves, and the United States needs to focus on the United States’ people.”
Fucci gave a bleak assessment of the administration’s approach to other governments. “No good … We roll a red carpet for [Putin]… for [Xi Jinping] a week or two ago. We are doing business with [Delcy] Rodríguez in Venezuela, who is a criminal dictator,” she said.
The panel split on the country’s direction. Anderson said she was “very optimistic,” that she did not think there was a better or more powerful country in the world, and that “as far as goals and policies that this country should strive for, I think Donald Trump has those in place.” She said Trump had restored confidence to the office: “When you have a leader that is confident in his ability and he says what he means and he means what he says and he leads with confidence, I think people respect that. So I think that we’re being respected a lot more than we were in the last administration.”
Akridge said he was “not very optimistic.” “Thirty years ago, I would have said yes. We were the shiny new penny that everybody loved after World War II,” he said. “Now we see the reverse: European countries have gotten their footing and are passing us. China is the worry. Xi is a smart man, a benevolent dictator.” He warned that continuing to elect “the Trumps of the world who do not embrace science, education or long-term economic stability and infrastructure” would mean continued decline.
Daniels said he believed America’s best days were over. “Oh, I think America’s future is behind it. I believe we’re starting to witness the collapse of the American empire, sad to say,” he said, arguing that the economy rests on the petrodollar and asking: “But what good is being the richest person on an ash heap?” He also said the country had lost its standing among allies. “You know how a lot of families have those old, racist grandpas that you just leave in a corner and you don’t bring them to family gatherings? That’s who the US is right now,” he said. “It’s sad, but I don’t know who our allies are.”
Rasmussen said she drew encouragement from long-running activist communities. “I take great encouragement from some of the voices of the Black community, the immigrant community, people who have been involved in activism for decades – I do have optimism,” she said. “But there is a large movement, there is a large resistance, and it’s growing week by week. And I think we have a long tradition in this country of believing that we do have rights. We have these incandescently beautiful founding documents.”
Ferrari pointed to the Democratic Socialists of America’s primary success as grounds for optimism. “They’ve already done more damage than the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street ever did, and it feels like this is just the beginning,” he said. “So I’m very, very optimistic, and I think the world that we can accomplish, a world where everyone’s needs are met, at least in the wealthiest nation in the history of the planet.”
Davis said the leftward turn was his biggest concern. “The most concerning section, especially in this election cycle, is that democratic socialist alliance,” he said. “What they seem to be fighting for isn’t just a better safety net; it has become the dismantling of America as a concept, the dismantling of the west as a concept, and of reality itself as a meaningful concept in public discourse.”
Ferrari said the Democratic Party’s internal debate over the DSA was productive and that the party “can also make healthcare work significantly better for everyone in the country.” He rejected the argument that Democrats must win elections before pursuing reform. “Well, Kamala didn’t win, so what now? Plenty of moderate Democrats did not win. Hillary didn’t win. That logic is not as sound as they think it is,” he said.
Several panelists also addressed the 2028 presidential race. Rasmussen said she respected Pete Buttigieg, “probably because he’s able to speak very cogently, very decisively, with people who disagree with him,” and called Adam Kinzinger “solid.” Fucci named Andy [Beshear] and Gavin Newsom as her top choices: “Let’s not talk about 2028 until after [the] midterms. I think Andy [Beshear] and Gavin Newsom will be my two top choices if I were to think about 2028 right now, which I’m not.” Akridge said the country does not vote for Democrats because it loves them, but “because Trump has ruined things so poorly, and made things so bad, that people will turn around and come back again and vote again,” and questioned whether the party’s strongest candidates could win. “I’m a Mayor Pete [Buttigieg] fan. I think he’s brilliant, he’s a brilliant man, he is,” he said. “He’s gay. Can he win?”
Davis, 22, said he is going to be in the air force and would serve whoever holds the presidency. “The president is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the United States, and as such, I will serve him honorably. If that’s a Democrat, then I will serve a Democrat honorably, because he will still be my president – or she,” he said.
The Guardian said the responses offer insight into the national mood with less than a month to go until election day, and that it will return to its voter panel before the final votes are cast.