Some Michigan voters tell NPR household costs outweigh Senate campaign rhetoric

Campaign fatigue and reluctance to disclose political preferences

Michel Martin reported from Ann Arbor that some Michigan voters were more concerned about gas, groceries and health care than about the increasingly personal rhetoric surrounding the Senate race. Trump, campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, had called Democrat Abdul El-Sayed a “jihadist.” NPR characterized Trump’s attacks on El-Sayed in Michigan as anti-Muslim attacks. NPR also described El-Sayed as making a final push to win over Black voters in Detroit.

Martin told Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep that NPR Member station colleagues who live there said Trump’s attacks on El-Sayed were not top of mind. Martin said, “People they talk to, the people we talk to, say they are worried about the price of gas, groceries, and health care.”

FRED’s raw University of Michigan series put the median one-year household inflation-expectation measure at 4.6% as of Oct. 27, 2026. The figure provides broader context for Martin’s reports about concern over gas and groceries, but it does not establish why individual voters chose or rejected candidates.

Martin described fatigue among the voters she spoke with: “And I got to tell you, a lot of the voters we talk to here are just burned out.” She said some voters were throwing away stacks of political mailers. One woman told Martin she had voted early “just to get it over with.”

Frustration with the two-party system also surfaced in the interviews. At a University of Michigan football tailgate, Nick Janosi said he planned to vote for El-Sayed but wished he had more choices. “I would love to see more independent, middle-of-the-road candidates that kind of take the best of both parties,” Janosi said.

At a Detroit Lions tailgate, Josh Snell expressed similar frustration with the two-party system. Snell said he would probably vote for Rogers, citing Rogers’s opposition to Trump’s Canadian tariffs.

Martin noticed another pattern: a growing reluctance among voters to speak openly about their political views, driven in part by fear of how others might react. Snell said, “A lot of people are afraid because of the violence involved.” Martin said the reluctance to discuss political preferences across Michigan was “worse than I’ve ever seen it,” regardless of which side voters supported.

Inskeep separately described similar encounters in North Carolina, where voters avoided mentioning Trump by name. In Ann Arbor, Martin found more people willing to speak openly about their support for El-Sayed. She said she could not determine whether that reflected greater enthusiasm for El-Sayed or Rogers supporters’ reluctance to speak.

The interviews also showed that voter fatigue did not necessarily mean disengagement. One woman told Martin she had voted early to get it over with; others discussed issue-based choices or pressed for alternatives outside the two major parties. Martin also found that some voters were reluctant to speak openly about their preferences, a response she tied in part to fear of how others might react.

The interviews portrayed a contest in which voters made choices while expressing concerns about household costs and the two-party system, even as Trump’s rhetoric against El-Sayed grew more personal and some voters were reluctant to state their views.