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Sometimes you hit the campaign trail and there is an issue voters care so much about, that its dominance is inescapable. In 2006, it was growing opposition to the Iraq war. In 2010, it was the backlash against big government spending and bailouts coupled with fear about what Obamacare would look like. This year, it is deep concern about affordability.
That is not to say that other issues, from abortion to crime to the climate and beyond, don’t matter a lot to voters – but anxiety about the high cost of the basics is palpable.
We learned that after traveling to five pivotal states since Labor Day weekend: Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Nevada and Arizona. We covered competitive races and talked to scores of voters in diners, gas stations, grocery store parking lots, construction sites, outdoor markets and more.
“I drive a truck and it does not get very good gas mileage. I actually had to quit my last job because I couldn’t afford to drive all the way out there,” Amanda Cleaver told us at the Michigan State Fair on Labor Day weekend.
Greg Steyer, as he sat with a group of friends at Bud’s Restaurant in Defiance, Ohio, expressed his exasperation as well.
“Why is the price of gas where it is today?” Steyer asked the second week of September.
“You can’t just overlook that issue,” he added.
As Joseph San Clemente put his groceries in his car in a Virginia Beach parking lot in late September, he couldn’t get over the prices of what he had just purchased.
“Vegetables have gone up 20 to 30%,” he said. “Growers locally in the farms are not carrying things they did last year because people don’t have the money.”
Dave Dent, who manages a construction company in Tucson, Arizona, said in late October that inflation in his line of work is as high as 30%.
And Maria Melgoza, who cleans homes in Las Vegas, told us how hard it is to make ends meet these days.
“Food is high, gas is high, rent is high,” she said, speaking in Spanish.
We heard from many frustrated voters – especially those among the working class and in rural areas – who feel forgotten by politicians in Washington.
“I came up in a union household. My dad was a teamster for 30 years, voted Democrat. But they’re completely out of touch with what everyday Americans want,” lamented Jason Fetke in Virginia Beach.
A current union member we met in Toledo, Ohio, says he is voting for Democrats this year, but still feels like neither party is doing enough.
“I think there should be a lot more focus on working class people,” said Joe Stallbaum.
“It just seems like we always get left behind for either the high or the low,” he added.
Keep reading here.
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