This week was, as President Donald Trump himself put it, bad for Republicans. We faced down election losses in Virginia, where voters embraced someone who drooled over the idea of murdering his political opponents and their families; New Jersey; and New York City, where voters embraced Zohran Mamdani, an Islamo-communist, with attendees at his victory party, where, ironically, drinks were far from free, including disgraced “Squad” member Jamaal Bowman, Qatar propagandist Mehdi Hasan, and America-hating Hasan Piker.
Conservatives have been looking to assign blame, with one particularly laughable argument being that those who have rejected Tucker Carlson’s descent into pro-Russian, pro-Iranian, pro-Qatari, pro-Mamdani, and anti-Jewish lunacy are responsible for these defeats in heavily blue cities and states.
Of course, the reality is simple: It’s the economy, stupid.
Because it’s always been the economy, stupid. The problem is exemplified in many ways by Mamdani, who ran with a consistent message of affordability. Yes, his communist solutions are demonstrably as far from a solution as is humanly possible, but that doesn’t mean that the problem doesn’t exist. And it’s a problem most people agree exists, even if they agree that Mamdani is hardly the answer.
In Virginia, 70% of Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger’s (D-VA) voters said federal cuts affected their finances, 79% said that the state’s economy was trending in the wrong direction, and 76% said their families’ financial situations were falling behind. And, in the midst of a government shutdown, 64% of Democratic voters in Virginia either work for the federal government or live with someone who works for the federal government, while 94% of Spanberger voters are angry about the state of national politics.
Conversely, in New Jersey, 76% of Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s (D-NJ) voters believed that the state’s economy was trending in the right direction, and 55% said that their families were getting ahead on their finances, but 78% of her voters are dissatisfied or angry with how “things are going” in the country under Trump’s leadership.
And in New York City, unquestionably the deepest-blue of these election regions, while 60% of Mamdani voters believe that the condition of the city’s economy is positive, 60% also believe that their families’ financial situations are falling behind, 66% view cost of living as the most important issue facing the city, and, unsurprisingly, 71% strongly disapprove of Trump as president.
The brutal fact is that economic concerns were the driving factor behind these three reasonably competitive races, and while there’s nothing Trump could ever do to address the strong disapproval among the most radical left-wing voters in the country, there’s plenty he can do to reach those who, in 2026 and 2028, will vote with an eye on their wallets.
In 2024, Trump won because people wanted the return of his pre-COVID-19 economy. Instead, people are facing prices that continue to rise under his entirely voluntary decision to kneecap the economy with arbitrary tariffs and vindictive trade wars.
WHAT WILL AND WON’T MATTER IN THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS FROM TUESDAY’S RESULTS
The brutal fact is that former President Joe Biden’s administration is long gone, and people are looking to Trump, after his many, many, many promises, to make things cheaper. If he doesn’t, voters will voice their dissatisfaction at the ballot box, as they did in Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City, with no guarantee that the promises of the alternative will ever solve the problem.
So it’s time for the Trump administration to let go of its tariff obsession, rein in the trade wars with our allies, and focus on delivering here-and-now for the public. Because endless announcements of 10-year investment plans from corporations, which will likely never materialize, and PR-addled declarations of nonexistent trade deals just won’t cut it.
Ian Haworth is a syndicated columnist. Follow him on X (@ighaworth) or Substack.