U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance speaks with reporters after arriving at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, May 28, 2026.
Matt Rourke | AFP | Getty Images
Voters are worried about the cost of living. Republican comments this week are unlikely to comfort them.
President Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday that the word “affordable” was “invented” by Democrats to belittle him. The Republican National Committee sent out a fundraising text attributed to Vice President J.D. Vance that said the groceries were “priced at cost.” And on Tuesday night, Sen. Darling Graham (RS.C.), who won the nomination for a full Senate term, disparaged federally-run universal health care and fondly recalled his parents going to work even when they were sick.
The series of comments over the past 24 hours illustrate the challenges ahead for Republicans as they struggle to protect their congressional majorities with midterm elections less than 10 weeks away. Democrats are slamming Republicans on the campaign trail over the still-high cost of living during the war with Iran. The White House and Republicans also have few tools at their disposal to immediately address affordability concerns.
Voters have also made it clear that affordability is a top concern in this election. Respondents to CNBC’s latest All-America Economic Survey said the cost of food and groceries is voters’ top concern, with Democrats holding a 7 percentage point lead on addressing the issue.
Personal consumption expenditure price index data released Wednesday rose 0.2% from June, leaving annual inflation at 3.7%. The report released by the Commerce Department also showed that personal consumption expenditures, adjusted for inflation, were flat month-over-month, compared with a 0.4% increase in June.
Political analysts say comments by Republican leaders risk being perceived as tone-deaf by voters struggling with high prices.
“Republicans are firing straight into the affordability wall with full throttle,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Center for Political Research. “And they’re screaming that this barrier is just a media gimmick. No, it’s not. It’s a barrier. All the while, tariff policy and conflict are actively pumping the brakes.”
He told CNBC that Republicans could learn the same lessons that Democrats experienced in 2024.
“To be fair, the same thing happened in 2024,” Paleologos said. “(Joe) Biden’s people kept talking about metrics on the dashboard, bragging to voters about horsepower and top speed while the middle class was riding on flat tires.”
The Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the party’s economic message.
President Trump’s comments Wednesday came in an interview with political ally and radio host Glenn Beck. Beck called on the president to address Americans who believe there is an “affordability crisis.”
In response, the president said, “Affordability is interesting because the Democrats caused it,” arguing that prices are too high because of former President Joe Biden’s administration, which ended more than a year and a half ago.
“Even though we inherited high prices, from day one we started using the word ‘affordable,'” Trump said. “It was a new word. No one had ever heard of it. They were good at it, so it was a new word they invented.”
Kyle Kondik, editor-in-chief of Sabbat’s Crystal Ball, an election prediction newsletter at the University of Virginia, said blaming the previous administration in a midterm year won’t work.
“I think trying to blame current problems on past administrations is generally a futile argument,” Kondik said. “Maybe it worked for FDR and the Democrats in 1934. It’s a rare example of a presidential party doing well in the midterms, but I don’t think there’s much evidence that it worked these days.”
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reported that Vance’s comments came in a text message from the RNC inviting people to participate in the investigation.
The text read, “If you can’t donate now, don’t donate.” “Food is priced at cost.”
Graham’s comments were made in his victory speech Tuesday night after winning the Republican nomination for a six-year Senate term on the ballot to replace his late brother Lindsey Graham. Health care and its costs are a perennial issue in American politics, and many progressive Democrats have long proposed universal health care to control costs.
“Gun control, government-controlled health care, abortion up to the point of birth, bad idea after bad idea, Annie Andrews supports all of those things,” Graham said, referring to her Democratic opponent. “I have a different background and vision for my state. I’m a hard worker with a servant’s heart…My parents worked long, hard hours to make ends meet. We didn’t take vacations and had to get up and go to work if we were sick.”
“My mother died when I was 11, and my father died a year later,” she said. “I understand the hardships that South Carolina families are facing because I have faced them myself.”
Dr. Andrews quickly responded to the remarks in a social media post Wednesday.
“Mrs Graham Nordone said her family suffered and died without access to medical care and apparently she thinks you should too,” she said. “You may call me crazy, but as a doctor, I believe that there is no more fundamental responsibility for government than to protect the health and safety of its citizens. Just because previous generations suffered, there is no need for families to suffer.”
