{"id":367347,"date":"2026-10-18T11:31:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T16:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/midterm-vote-is-about-whats-best-for-my-family-voters-talk-2026-midterms"},"modified":"2026-10-18T11:31:25","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T16:31:25","slug":"midterm-vote-is-about-whats-best-for-my-family-voters-talk-2026-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/midterm-vote-is-about-whats-best-for-my-family-voters-talk-2026-midterms","title":{"rendered":"Midterm vote is about ‘what’s greatest for my household’: Voters speak 2026 midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Josh York, a retired Army major who now works in health care administration in Anchorage, Alaska, has seen firsthand how high prices for fuel have kept Alaskans off the road. In the far reaches of America\u2019s largest state, prices are as high as $24 per gallon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gas prices don’t seem to be coming down, and believe me, I watch,\u201d York, a three-time Trump voter, told ABC News.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecently, we were out in the middle of rural Alaska, and we were paying $8.99 a gallon for gas,\u201d York said, blaming the higher prices on the Iran war. That war has substantially slowed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, experts say, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas transited before the war.<\/p>\n

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Retired Army Maj. Josh York during an interview with ABC News outside Anchorage, Alaska.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

ABC News<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The economy is on Americans\u2019 minds across the country ahead of midterm elections on Nov. 3, when voters in a handful of key states will wield outsize impact on control of the United States Congress.<\/p>\n

ABC News traveled to those states — Alaska, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Maine — finding many Americans who are frustrated with their personal finances and aware their vote would be a referendum on President Donald Trump\u2019s job performance.<\/p>\n

The Frontier state<\/h3>\n

Trump traveled outside the continental United States this week to boost Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who faces a reelection challenge from Democratic congresswoman Mary Peltola \u2013 one of four seats the Democrats hope they can capture to win control of the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n

The president defended the war against Iran, telling Alaskans the war would end soon and prices would come down when it did, and said his opponents had made the election about affordability.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time they want to try and get me, they say ‘affordability, sir. This and that.’ I said, ‘They caused the problem,\u2019 he said at a rally in Wasilla, 45 miles north of Anchorage. \u201cBut we have reduced it very substantially.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senate race \u2013 analyzed as a toss-up in a state where Trump won by 13 points in 2024 \u2013 is reflecting the price pressures of voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s polling numbers have plummeted to record lows in recent months. Just over half of Americans, 52%, strongly disapprove of Trump, according to a new ABC News\/Washington Post\/Ipsos poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sullivan, who is aligned with Trump and has backed the Iran war, acknowledged the conflict was causing higher prices and said it should end \u201csoon.\u201d<\/p>\n

One voter said heating costs in Fairbanks had even exceeded mortgage costs.<\/p>\n

York told ABC News\u2019 Martha Raddatz, co-anchor of “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” that even though he\u2019s voted for Trump, he disapproved of the president across the board: in his handling of the economy, the Iran war and the overall direction the president was taking the country.<\/p>\n

York, unsure about his decision between the candidates, said his vote would come down to the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that they both have their ideas for Alaska and how they want to do things. And I’m not gonna say one’s right versus the other being wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at this point, I’ve got to look at what’s best for my family. I’ve got to look at what’s best for my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

The heartland<\/h3>\n

In America\u2019s heartland, voters told ABC News energy prices and the president\u2019s trade policy were animating discussions around the midterm elections, including in a competitive Iowa senate race.<\/p>\n

The rising diesel prices have crunched farmers who rely on diesel for transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur tanks over there hold 3,500 gallons. It costs $20,000 now to fill them. A year ago it cost [about] $12,000,\u201d said cattle farmer Dan Pederson, who voted for the president three times.<\/p>\n

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Cattle farmer Dan Pederson during an interview with ABC News in Underwood, Iowa.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThe ripple effect \u2013 hauling cattle, pickups, trucks, everything [is] just– it’s just astronomical. It’s crazy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Pederson said among his \u201cstaunch Republican friends\u201d there was a lot of \u201cwavering\u201d on Trump. The Republican candidate for the Senate seat, Rep. Ashley Hinson, has broken with the president, urging him to bring the Iran war to an end.<\/p>\n

The president announced an extraordinary remedy to the price of diesel last week, saying in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the two leaders had agreed to a \u201cdiesel deal\u201d that would allow Russian diesel, largely blocked by sanctions and trapped because of Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, to enter world markets.<\/p>\n

Many Republican lawmakers said the president\u2019s move would benefit an autocratic government that invaded its neighbor, Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to lower gas prices in this country,\u201d Hinson said. \u201cWe need to lower diesel prices, but I don’t think we need to be making a deal with Russia to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In neighboring Nebraska, Republican congressman Don Bacon, who is stepping away from his own seat, said Republicans\u2019 formula of backing Trump could prove costly.<\/p>\n

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Rep. Don Bacon, R-NE., during an interview with ABC News in Papillon, Nebraska.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Republican worries about his party\u2019s odds in traditionally red Nebraska and Kansas, midwestern Senate races where Democrats hope to manage surprise victories, he told Raddatz.<\/p>\n

He credited his own independent streak with his own election victories.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to be able to show that you’re your own person and you represent the district,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In an X post this week, Bacon said Trump\u2019s deal with Putin was a betrayal of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

The president was \u201cpropping up a dictator\u2019s invasion and throwing an ally under the bus,\u201d he wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The independent Northeast<\/h3>\n

In the country\u2019s Northeast, independent voters wield considerable influence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Democratic-leaning states here have continued to elect Republicans \u2013 like Maine\u2019s five-term Sen. Susan Collins, who is seeking a sixth election.<\/p>\n

Collins is one of the few Senate Republicans who regularly breaks with Trump, saying in a recent debate she \u201cvoted nine times against the president on the Iran war.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters pointed to her role as the top appropriator in Congress, overseeing the key funding mechanisms that Mainers say gives them a crucial voice in Washington.<\/p>\n

In a polarized era, voters said it\u2019s Collins\u2019 independent brand that has won her respect.<\/p>\n

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Mary Anne Lynch during an interview with ABC News in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cI think that objectively speaking, she is the most bipartisan member of the Senate, and I think we need more Susan Collins, not fewer,\u201d said self-described life-long Democrat Mary Anne Lynch. She plans to cast her ballot for Collins this November.<\/p>\n

Brenda Garrand has been in Collins\u2019 camp before, voting for her three times \u2013 but she says she won\u2019t in 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say, for me, the most important reason to vote for Troy Jackson is to make sure that there is a Democratic Senate,\u201d Garrand said.<\/p>\n

Collins was not doing enough with her powerful perch, she argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has gone a step too far \u2026 [I\u2019m] deeply disappointed in her behavior as a woman who has really reached the apex of an ability to make a difference,\u201d Garrand said.<\/p>\n

The Democratic senate nominee in neighboring New Hampshire sees the same dynamics at play in his state. Congressman Chris Pappas told Raddatz that Democrats\u2019 margins in the Granite State had improved since Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019s narrow victory there in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m meeting Republicans every day that are opposed to what they see this administration doing,\u201d he said. \u201cI’m meeting libertarian-minded voters in the \u2018Live Free or Die\u2019 state that don’t support the disgraceful immigration overreach with respect to [Immigrations and Custom Enforcement.]\u201d<\/p>\n

Pappas faces a known name brand in New Hampshire politics: John Sununu, the brother of Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.<\/p>\n

Chris Ager, a former chair of the New Hampshire Republican party, called Sununu \u201cthat quintessential New Hampshire politician \u2013 very pragmatic, very common sense, very independent of Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cI think that’s going to sell very well on Nov. 3.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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