Dems Face Crunch as 3/4 of Americans Say Economy, Inflation, Gas Price Will Determine Midterm Vote

Americans will go to the polls on 8 November for midterm elections, selecting all 435 members of the House of Representatives, 35 of 100 senators, and a slew of state and local lawmakers and officials. While the presidency is not up for grabs, pundits see the results of the midterms as a barometer of Americans’ views on the president’s performance.

A vast majority of Americans consider the economy, inflation, and gas prices as "extremely" or "very important" issues in determining how they will vote in the November elections, particularly among those reporting that they are “very enthusiastic” to vote, a new ABC News/IPSOS poll has found.

Those polled listed the economy (83 percent), inflation (80 percent), and gas prices (73 percent) as their top concerns, with 37 percent approving of President Joe Biden’s overall handling of the post-COVID economic recovery, 28 percent approving of his policy on inflation, and 27 percent on gas prices.

The poll found that even among Democrats, Biden “earns a bare majority” of support on inflation (56 percent) and gas prices (51 percent).

39 percent told the pollster that they are “very enthusiastic” to vote in the upcoming midterms, with 57 percent of Republicans and 44 percent of Democrats sharing that sentiment, with the economy and inflation topping the list of priorities among them (66 and 62 percent, respectively).

Biden received a 56 percent approval and 43 percent disapproval rating for his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but just 27 percent of those who responded placed the coronavirus on their list of “extremely important” concerns.

61 percent also disapproved his handling of immigration and crime, 58 percent of abortion amid the firestorm of controversy following the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v Wade, 55 percent on climate, and 52 percent on the crisis in Ukraine.

The poll was taken 3-4 June, with IPSOS saying it was based on a “nationally representative probability sample of 542 adults age 18 or older” in English and Spanish.

The worrying poll numbers come a day after the American Automobile Association’s posting of fresh data on the national average price of a gallon of gasoline indicating that prices had officially doubled during Biden’s tenure. Other issues on the minds of ordinary Americans include inflation rates unseen since the stagflation crisis of the 1970s, and fears of a looming recession. The president has assured that a recession is not inevitable, and has blamed COVID and foreign actors for the country's economic troubles.