Republicans want the 2026 midterms to be all about the economy as voters become more frustrated with the higher cost of living.
Inside the party, strategists and lawmakers are increasingly nervous that a wave of cost-of-living anger is building under their feet, threatening the very majorities they’re trying to protect. While they lean on familiar talking points and blame former President Joe Biden for today’s pain, new polling suggests that message is wearing thin, even with parts of Donald Trump’s own base.
A detailed Politico analysis this month laid out the problem in blunt terms. “While many in the GOP — including Trump — continue to lay blame for their economic problems with former President Joe Biden, there are clear warning signs for Republicans,” the outlet reported.
In a recent Politico poll, 46 percent of respondents said the cost of living is the worst they can remember it being. That is not just partisan Democrats talking. According to the same survey, 37 percent of people who voted for Trump in 2024 said the same, and about a quarter of Trump voters said he is either fully or mainly responsible for the current state of the economy.
That cuts straight against the Republicans talking point about “Bidenflation” and a Trump-led revival. If many of their own voters now see Trump as part of the problem, the party’s midterm slogan-writing gets a lot harder.
Politico reports that GOP pollsters have been warning lawmakers that simply insisting things are better than people feel will backfire. Voters do not need a chart to know what groceries, rent, or gas cost. And the pain is not confined to any one corner of the map. Cost-of-living complaints are coming from swing suburbs, red rural counties, and blue-leaning cities alike.
46% of voters say the cost of living is the worst they can remember—including 37% of Trump supporters. Trickle-down lies aren’t working. Working Americans are paying the price. pic.twitter.com/4O3OKHsPdS
— Free Citizens (@free_citizens1) December 5, 2025
Republicans had hoped to run on what Trump once touted as his “one big, beautiful bill,” a sweeping first-year package of tax cuts and deregulatory moves they still claim put the economy “back on track.” But even senior Republicans now concede privately that they have not done enough to sell that story or to show how their plans will bring prices down in people’s daily lives.
Health care and housing are particular sore spots as Politico notes, GOP members are “struggling to address health care and other affordability issues,” even as premiums, out-of-pocket costs, and prescription drug prices remain top-of-mind worries for voters in both parties.
If Republicans say the economy is strong while their own voters tell pollsters it has “never felt worse,” Democrats have an easy line of attack. Expect to hear a lot of ads tying House and Senate Republicans to high prices, stalled wages, and the sense that the party in charge is more interested in messaging than solutions.
Republicans are not blind to the danger and party insiders told Politico that there is growing anxiety on Capitol Hill that the cost-of-living issue could become the defining theme of the midterms, drowning out culture-war messaging and even immigration, which many GOP candidates assumed would be their strongest card.
In theory, economic frustration should be an opening for any opposition party. The twist this time is that Republicans already control the House, and Trump occupies the Oval Office. When voters decide who to punish, there is no mystery about who is in power.
