We Can’t Address Affordability Without Tackling Corporate Power

Concentrated economic influence is making us increasingly powerless—and angry.

After a demoralizing defeat in November 2024, the Democratic Party has been enjoying an electoral surge across the country; throughout 2025, the average result in special House races was a 15.6 percent improvement on the 2024 baseline. The party’s worst showings, in fact, were a pair of 13 percent surges in Tennessee and Arizona. Democrats romped to impressive victories in New Jersey and Virginia. An energized left scored major wins in mayoral races in New York City and Seattle. For the first time in decades, the party notched statewide office wins in Georgia. So far, the trend does not seem to be abating; a recent state Senate race in deep red Tarrant County, Texas, saw a 34 percent swing and the election of Democrat Taylor Rehmet. Usual disclaimers about the unrepresentativeness of special elections aside, these are some seismic shifts. 

A lot has happened in the past year. President Donald Trump is singular in his ability to pack a whole 52 decade-long weeks into a single trip around the sun. But there are some commonalities across all of the Democratic overperformances. They all focused relentlessly on cost of living issues and channeling widespread dissatisfaction with the status quo. Freed from the polite norm of defending a floundering, disliked incumbent, candidates are emboldened to rage against the machine. Whether we’re talking about democratic socialists in New York, middle-of-the-road liberals in New Jersey, or blue-collar unionists in Texas, everyone has built their coalition on a pillar of directly addressing economic anxiety. It even has a name: affordability politics.

But just beneath the surface of the affordability messaging that has been propelling Democrats to victory is something far more profound than annoyance at high nominal prices: anger at corporate power. To create a durable affordability agenda, Democrats must embrace widespread feelings of economic powerlessness head on—and embrace making enemies of the corporate behemoths controlling our lives. The party’s leadership that is still in thrall to an outmoded form of politics that no longer works must be jettisoned. Americans are simply fed up, and with good reason: Corporate power is taking a dive for the benefit of Trump.

In 2022, jury-selection consulting firm Orrick found that 45 percent of survey respondents had somewhat or very negative perceptions of large corporations, compared to 40 percent with somewhat or very positive perceptions. That represented a doubling of negative sentiment from Orrick’s 2019 findings. And while the firm noted increased skepticism of institutions broadly, distrust of corporations outstripped the other categories Orrick analyzed: the courts (17 percent, up from 8 pre-pandemic) and police (36 percent, up from 11).  

In its 2025 follow-up research, Orrick determined that the high level of distrust in institutions, foremost major corporations, had “cemented over the last three years.” In 2025, 86 percent agreed with the statement that “corporations use their power and money to improperly influence regulatory agencies or lawmakers.” 

Orrick’s findings are not anomalous; both Gallup and Pew have shown marked declines in sentiment toward big businesses. Gallup has big business’s approval rate falling from 52 percent in 2019 to 37 percent in 2025. Pew shows a less marked drop, mostly because it found a far lower 2019 approval rate, moving from 36 percent believing large corporations have a positive impact on the nation’s direction to 29 percent over the same period. Notably, Pew’s research shows that, while Democratic-leaning voters have been relatively consistent—the percent believing large corporations improve society was in the 20s for the entire time—Republican-leaning voters’ faith in big business has plummeted. 

The American National Election Studies, using data from late 2024, found the most negative perception of big business on record since 1964. This tracks a large and growing body of evidence showing that since at least 2020, Americans have become deeply skeptical of large corporations and their influence over the government and economy. According to polling outfit Navigator, 71 percent of Americans blame the wealthy and large corporations not paying enough taxes for their own tax burden. In 2021, Data for Progress and the Revolving Door Project found that 75 percent believe the federal government “prioritizes the interests of corporations and the wealthy” and 80 percent agreed that “wealthy people and corporations are regularly not punished for breaking the law.” A fall 2025 poll from YouGov and The Economist shows 80 percent of people think the rich have too much power.

Crucially, large majorities of Americans blame corporations for their affordability issues. In the YouGov/Economist poll, 72 percent think that developers maximizing profits is somewhat or very important in making housing costs more expensive. Data for Progress and Groundwork Collaborative research in 2022 found 63 percent of people believed large corporations were unfairly raising prices. In 2023, 90 percent of respondents told YouGov that they blamed corporate profit-seeking at least some for inflation, with 61 percent blaming it a lot. The public is right; executives were openly saying on earnings calls, where lying is prohibited by federal law, that they were using the inflationary environment to rent-seek.

The rage over affordability issues has everything to do with the public’s exhaustion with being ripped off. Understanding this is the first step toward building a real politics of affordability. The next is to embrace open conflict with........

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