Voters are worried about the cost of living. Comments from the GOP this week are not likely to console them.
President Donald Trump, in an interview Wednesday, said the word "affordability" was "devised" by Democrats to disparage him. The Republican National Committee sent out a fundraising text attributed to Vice President JD Vance that said groceries "cost what they cost." And Sen. Darline Graham, R-S.C., who won the nomination for a full Senate term on Tuesday, disparaged federally run universal healthcare before recalling with nostalgia her parents heading to work even if they were sick.
The set of comments over the past 24 hours exemplifies the challenges ahead for Republicans as they race to save their majorities in Congress in the midterm election, which looms less than 10 weeks away. Democrats are hammering Republicans on the campaign trail over the cost of living, which remains stubbornly high amid the war with Iran. The White House and Republicans also have few levers to pull to remedy affordability concerns immediately.
Voters are also loud and clear that affordability is their top concern in this election. Respondents to CNBC's most recent All-America Economic Survey said the cost of food and groceries was voters' top concern, and Democrats held a 7 percentage point lead on handling that issue.
Personal consumption expenditures price index data released Wednesday rose .2% from June, leaving the annual inflation rate at 3.7%. The report, released by the Commerce Department, also showed inflation-adjusted consumer spending was flat from the month prior, compared with a .4% gain in June.
Political analysts say the comments from top Republicans risk coming across as tone-deaf to voters struggling with high prices.
"Republicans are driving the car straight into an affordability wall at full throttle, and they're yelling that the barrier is just a media hoax," said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center. "Well it's not, it's a barrier, and all the while the tariff policies and the conflicts are actively cutting the brakes."
Republicans may learn the same lesson Democrats did in 2024, he told CNBC.
"To be fair, the same thing happened in 2024," Paleologos said. "[Joe] Biden's people kept talking about the metrics on the dashboard, bragging to voters about horsepower and top speed when the middle class was riding on flat tires."
The Republican National Committee defended the GOP's record in a statement to CNBC.
"After inheriting four years of Democrats' failed economy, President Trump and Republicans are delivering the comeback Americans voted for: historic tax relief, lower prescription drug prices, critical support for farmers and rural hospitals, and Trump Accounts to give the next generation a financial head start," said RNC spokesman Max Lippel. "While Democrats' popularity sinks to historic lows, Republicans are putting more money back in families' pockets, rebuilding prosperity, and making the American Dream possible again."
Trump's comments Wednesday came during an interview with Glenn Beck, a political ally and radio host. Beck asked the president to respond to Americans who believe there is an "affordability crisis."
In response, the president said that "affordability is interesting because the Democrats caused affordability," arguing that prices are too high because of former President Joe Biden's administration, which ended more than a year and a half ago.
"I inherited high prices, and then from the first day, they started using the word 'affordability,'" Trump said. "It was a new word. Nobody ever heard the word. It was a new word that they devised because they're quite good at that."
Kyle Kondik, managing editor of election forecasting newsletter "Sabato's Crystal Ball" at the University of Virginia, said blaming the prior administration is unlikely to work in a midterm year.
"I think trying to blame the past administration for the problems of the present is generally a dud of an argument," Kondik said. "Maybe it worked for FDR and the Democrats in 1934, a rare instance of a presidential party doing great in a midterm, but more recently I don't think there's much evidence it works."
Vance's comments, meanwhile, came in a text message from the RNC soliciting survey participation, as reported by The Washington Post.
"If you can't give right now, don't," the text read. "Groceries cost what they cost."
Graham's comments came in her victory speech Tuesday night after she prevailed over Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., for the Republican nomination for a full six-year Senate term, replacing her late brother Lindsey Graham on the ballot. Healthcare and its costs are a perennial issue in U.S. politics, and many progressive Democrats have long proposed a universal healthcare system to curb costs.
"Gun control, government-run healthcare, abortion until the moment of birth, bad idea after bad idea, Annie Andrews backs them all," Graham said, referring to her Democratic opponent. "I have a different background and vision for my state. I'm a hard worker with a servant's heart ... My parents worked long, hard hours to make ends meet; we didn't take vacations, if they were sick they had to get up and go to work."
"My mother passed away when I was 11 and my father just over a year later," she said. "I understand the struggles facing South Carolina families, because I've faced them, too."
Andrews, a physician, quickly responded to the remark in a social media post Wednesday.
"Mrs. Graham Nordone says her family suffered and died without health care and apparently thinks yours should too," she said. "Call me crazy, but as a doctor, I believe there are few responsibilities more fundamental to government than keeping its citizens healthy and safe. No family should have to suffer simply because generations before them did."
