Eight in ten registered voters want the next Congress to lower the cost of living, and roughly seven in ten want it to end the war with Iran — but only four in ten care about investigating Trump, and just two in ten want lawmakers pushing his agenda. The AP-NORC poll makes clear what the Beltway class refuses to admit: working Americans' priorities and Washington's priorities barely overlap.
The stakes are straightforward. While Congress chases Trump and pumps military aid overseas, voters are getting crushed at the grocery store and watching another Middle East conflict spiral with no defined exit. The poll found that even among Democrats — the party most hostile to Trump — lowering costs and ending the Iran war both outrank investigations into his administration. About six in ten Democrats still call Trump probes a top priority, but that trails the economic and war questions by wide margins.
Justin Campbell, a 31-year-old Democrat from Brookhaven, Mississippi, told the AP what millions of Americans already know: "I'm not a millionaire and probably won't ever be. I prefer policy that helps me instead of someone I'll never be." Arthur Brown, a 71-year-old Democrat in Magee, Mississippi, echoed the sentiment. He said Congress "should just focus on, you know, trying to tackle these problems," meaning the economy and prices. On holding Trump accountable: "Eventually down the road, justice will come."
The poll also exposes the fracture inside each party. Democratic socialist voters want Trump investigations and an end to military aid to Israel. MAGA Republicans want Congress to advance Trump's agenda. But the moderates in both parties — the voters who actually decide elections — want common ground on affordability and peace. Only about three in ten voters overall prioritize cutting aid to Israel, and just half say reducing the budget deficit or bipartisan compromise should be high priorities.
Both the Philadelphia Inquirer and WTOP ran the same AP wire story with identical framing, and neither outlet lingered on the obvious implication: if voters across the spectrum agree on costs and war, why does Capitol Hill spend its time on everything else? The AP notes that Trump remains "central" to the midterm campaign, then buries the data showing most voters wish he wasn't.
Here is the open question. If eight in ten voters demand cheaper groceries and seven in ten want out of the Iran war, who exactly is Congress working for when it does neither? The polling is clear. The political class has chosen different masters.
