Support justice-driven, accurate and transparent news — make a quick donation to Truthout today! 

On Thursday, President Donald Trump rejected the premise that voter concerns about “affordability” and his administration’s failure to address rising consumer costs played a role in the Republican Party’s election losses earlier this week.

Exit polling data indicates that Americans are indeed upset about the state of the economy. In two gubernatorial races that were won by Democrats this week, voters who were most concerned about the economy overall voted for New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D) and Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger (D) over their Republican counterparts, with the latter defeating her opponent on the issue by more than 20 points, a CBS News exit poll revealed.

An Associated Press exit poll also found that, while 6 in 10 voters taking part in elections this week believed their finances were “holding steady,” the vast majority of respondents said they were not “getting ahead,” while around a quarter of voters actually described themselves as “falling behind” when it came to their finances.

Retail prices, specifically grocery store items, are indeed going up. Several specific food items, including beef, eggs, juice, bread, and more have seen moderate to extreme increases, year-over-year.........

© Truthout