The national press has decided that every competitive House race in the country is about one man, and in doing so, they're burying the issues — affordability, development, who actually represents your community — that drive real voters to the polls.

In New York's 22nd District, syracuse.com flatly declared that the race between Democrat John Mannion and Republican Kailee Buller "boils down to one issue: Donald Trump." The outlet reported that Trump "has emerged as the top issue in the final weeks," overshadowing what it concedes are the topics that actually divide the parties: "taxes, health care, abortion rights and guns." Both campaigns, according to syracuse.com, are working to make the election a referendum on Trump, who has asked his supporters to pretend he's on the ballot.

Notice what's missing: any serious examination of what those taxes, that health care, or those guns mean for the people who actually live in the district. The press can't argue the issues, so they argue the man.

Down in South Carolina's 1st District, the Charleston Post and Courier covered a race that actually has texture — and still couldn't quite escape the gravitational pull of national framing. The contest between Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt and Democrat Nancy Lacore is described as going "down to the wire," with national groups from both parties "pouring millions of dollars" into the district.

But here, at least, the real issues break through. Honeycutt, a two-term Charleston County councilwoman, has framed the race as local versus transplant, emphasizing her James Island roots and tagging Lacore as an out-of-state liberal whose policy positions would raise taxes. Lacore, a retired Navy vice admiral who moved to Mount Pleasant last year after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired her from her post as chief of Navy Reserve, has tried to turn growth frustrations against Honeycutt, tagging her as pro-development through county council votes that allowed extra residential density in rural areas.

Honeycutt has bitterly denied being in developers' camp, with her campaign accusing Lacore's side of lying over ads that insinuated, without evidence, that she cast votes to help her construction law firm's clients.

That's a real fight — about who profits, who gets to live where, and who speaks for the people who've been there longest. One Honeycutt supporter, Goose Creek retiree Donna Cool, said she wanted a native to represent the area, noting that she and her husband still consider themselves newcomers after 40 years. A Lacore supporter cut to the chase: "Nobody in Charleston is from Charleston anymore."

That tension — growth, cost of living, whether your representative understands your community — is what actually moves voters. The syracuse.com piece reduces an entire congressional race to a Trump personality quiz. The Post and Courier at least lets the substance breathe, even if it still leads with the horse-race framing.

The pattern is clear: when the press can't defend the record on inflation, borders, or foreign entanglements, they make every race about Trump. Working Americans in both districts deserve better than a one-word ballot.

The question is whether voters will let the media set the terms, or force the conversation back to what's actually costing them.