In the swing state of Wisconsin, affordability is top of mind for many voters. A recent NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found that nearly six in ten voters nationally say President Trump's top priority should be lowering prices, and that concern is being voiced loudly in Wisconsin.
An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll recently found that nearly six in ten voters say President Trump's top priority should be lowering prices, a sentiment that reporters from Milwaukee's NPR member station WUWM say is especially pronounced in Wisconsin.
In a report for NPR, WUWM journalists Chuck Quirmbach and Maayan Silver describe how cost-of-living pressures are shaping voter attitudes ahead of next year's elections.
At a turkey giveaway event in Milwaukee, attendees spoke about their struggles with basic needs. One participant, Sharol Britton, a 57-year-old who relies on food stamps and supplemental security income and is living in a van, voiced frustration with politicians of all stripes.
"The Trump administration, Democrat, Republican, liberal, right wing, left wing, back wing, horizontal wing, I don't give a freak. Get your stuff together, period," she said in the NPR piece, adding that she does not plan to vote until leaders address people in her position.
Health care affordability is a particular worry. The NPR report notes that premiums on the Affordable Care Act marketplace are expected to rise in January, in part because enhanced federal tax credits are scheduled to expire at the end of December unless Congress acts. According to the story, those enhanced subsidies currently save the average enrollee about $650 a month and help roughly 275,000 people in Wisconsin afford coverage.
Freelance writer Nancy Peske, speaking at a news conference alongside Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, told NPR she is concerned about helping her son keep his job-related health coverage if subsidies lapse.
"So he's going to have such an astronomical premium that I'm probably going to have to pay that, too. So, yeah, it's going to be very tight," she said.
Democrats are trying to make the issue central in several House races next year. The NPR report says the party is targeting Republican U.S. Reps. Derrick Van Orden, Bryan Steil and Tom Tiffany, all critics of the Affordable Care Act, in districts they hope to flip.
Republicans currently hold six of Wisconsin's eight U.S. House seats, according to NPR. The piece also notes that a Marquette University Law School poll found that 58% of Wisconsin voters support extending the enhanced subsidies.
Jefferson County Republican Party Chair Brian Norby told NPR that he sees the extra ACA assistance as a partisan maneuver.
"Now they're essentially being used as a political tool to heighten up the Democratic base to come out and vote. So why should we continue to extend them when they're designed by the Democratic Party?" he said.
Some conservatives say they still have faith in Trump's economic approach. Home builder Aaron Eckhart told NPR he believes conditions are improving.
"So I think it's turning around," he said. "Promises made, promises kept."
Senate Republicans have said they will allow a vote on extending the enhanced subsidies, and Baldwin told NPR she is willing to work across the aisle with what she called "any Johnny-come-lately" to avert higher costs on January 1.
The NPR story also underscores how Wisconsin remains deeply divided along urban-rural lines. The reporters note that manufacturers are wrestling with the effects of tariffs, while farmers in the state's dairy, soybean and corn sectors, along with growers of specialty crops such as ginseng and cranberries, are dealing with the fallout from trade policies. Wisconsin is the nation's top cranberry producer.
Democrats are hoping that concerns over prices, health insurance and trade will help them make gains among voters in rural areas that have been strongholds for Trump in past elections.
