Dem
47
GOP
53
Last year, "inflation" was the keyword in the elections. It seems that word has run its course. Now the magic word is "affordability." Democrats got the message as soon as Zohran Mamdani won the NYC Democratic primary. Republicans didn't think affordability was a big deal. But all of a sudden they have gotten the memo. Here is a graph showing the relative number of times "affordability" appeared in congressional e-mails since Jan. 2024.
The jump among Democrats after the NYC primary is 7x, which is astounding. It is almost as though they were paying attention. Among Republicans, usage continued trending downward until the general election, and then, whoosh—there is hardly an e-mail without that word now. Clearly, discussions of affordability are going to be a big thing in the primaries and general elections next year.
The job of catching up won't be made easier for Republicans by their president. He has said "affordability" is a con job and doesn't mean anything to anyone. Watch:
But voters think it means something (e.g., "I can't afford things because prices are too high"). If Republicans say "affordability" is an issue, they risk angering Trump. If they don't talk about it, the voters will hear about it only from Democrats.
Also, what any candidate says matters. Voters want to hear more from candidates than: "I support affordability." They are going to want to hear what the candidates are planning to do about the problem. One piece of low-hanging fruit for Democrats is to blame high prices on Trump's tariffs and promise to vote to repeal the tariffs and restore the power to levy tariffs to Congress alone. Another thing Democrats can do is to talk about raising the minimum wage. While that doesn't lower prices, if you are making more money, things become more affordable. Republicans will have to be creative in coming up with answers. One possibility is to talk about how Donald Trump wants to lower interest rates. But Democrats can counter that by saying lowering interest rates will release the dreaded inflation demon from its cave. (V)