MAGA Republicans tearing the BBB initiatives of Joe Biden on inflation upsetting daily life of Americans with budgeting woes seems to be producing a disconnect between democrats string of legislative successes and voters concern of high cost of living in the battleground state of Pennsylvania where democrats have high stakes in the gubernatorial, mayoral and congressional candidates.
Though the Washington administration is touting the inflation reduction act, climate change and lowering prescription prices of drugs, waiver of college students’ debts and cheaper health care by insurance companies, a small-town Pennsylvania is not too taken in by the positive economic change.
That disconnect could spell trouble for Democrats, says BBC in an analysis of the election scenario for the midterms scheduled for November 8.
The Democratic Party has borne the brunt of Americans’ fury over the soaring inflation, and insiders have warned that voters must be convinced the economy is improving if Democrats hope to stave off major losses in the midterms, BBC said.
Though the president’s party scored policy wins in the final weeks of summer — passing long-sought climate legislation that, they claim, also addresses inflation, and announcing student loan debt relief for millions — Democrats are expected to lose the majority they hold in at least one chamber of Congress, the BBC predicts.
Those policy wins aren’t yet connecting with voters like Tina Jordan, who told BBC News that rising prices had cut into her profits. Tina Jordan, 55, was “totally against” Donald Trump for president in 2016.
A registered Democrat in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, she went for Hillary Clinton, though Trump ultimately won the state that year, delivering him the White House.
But in 2020, Jordan changed her mind and voted for Trump because his presidency, she confessed, coincided with “the best I’ve been in a long time, financially”.
She will “probably vote for Trump again” if he runs in 2024, she said – two years into Joe Biden’s presidency, Jordan didn’t think he was “in touch with small business owners” like herself.
Pennsylvania is the top prize in this year’s November mid-term elections, with Democrats fighting to gain a seat in the US Senate and keep a candidate away who backs Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen out of the governor’s mansion.
Biden, who has long touched on his middle-class Pennsylvania roots and made his ties to the state a part of his political identity, has been trumpeting his economic record there. At a speech in Philadelphia this month, he declared that “today, America’s economy is faster, stronger than any other advanced nation in the world”.
However, Jordan’s concerns about her financial stability were echoed by voters throughout Pennsylvania, with Biden and Trump supporters alike concerned about the continued high cost of everyday living and disillusioned with leaders in Washington.
“You got a lot of folks in Pennsylvania that are worried about what’s right in front of them,” said Mustafa Rashed, a Philadelphia-area Democratic strategist. “It’s harder to get people involved in the voting process. You’re competing for their attention with pocketbook issues.”
Washington’s victories aren’t felt on the ground, says BBC. Republicans have hammered Democrats in local races over inflation and the cost of basic necessities, trying to pin blame for a complex economic issue on the party in power.
Recent polling shows that Democrats’ midterm prospects have improved since the party’s late-summer policy spurt.
They have gotten a boost since the fall of Roe v Wade made abortion access a major election year issue. Surveys taken in Pennsylvania consistently show the Democratic candidate for US Senate, John Fetterman, and governor, Josh Shapiro, running slightly ahead of their respective Republican rivals, Dr. Oz and Doug Mastriano.
–IANS