Why was the economy the top issue in the election?
American voters had the economy on their minds when they cast their ballots, sending President-elect Trump back to the White House following his victory over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Economic issues are often a key concern for voters, and the 2024 election was no different. The Fox News Voter Analysis (FNVA), which was conducted in partnership with The Associated Press, found that voters rated the economy and jobs as the most important issues facing the country, according to 39% of respondents, topping immigration (20%) and abortion (11%).
Additionally, the FNVA found that a combined 63% of voters rated economic conditions as "not so good" or "poor," compared to 37% who said they're "excellent" or "good." That carried over into voters' assessment of their family's financial situation, as just 13% said they are "getting ahead," compared to 56% "holding steady" and 31% "falling behind."
Those findings come after the U.S. economy experienced its most significant inflationary cycle in four decades in the last few years, with prices up about 20% as compared with four years ago, which caused interest rates to rise to their highest level since 2001 to tamp down the pace of price growth.
WHY ARE CONSUMERS PESSIMISTIC ABOUT THE ECONOMY WHILE INFLATION IS COOLING?
Though inflation has cooled, and the labor market has remained relatively stable, the impact of rapidly rising prices on household budgets kept their personal finances and the broader economy front and center when it came time to vote.
Troy McGuire, co-founder of Fintech.TV, told FOX Business that financial strain was the main reason the economy was the key issue in the election: "One word: inflation. The Biden-Harris administration’s inability to get inflation rates down and the continued high interest rates put real pressure on people’s paychecks."
"Immigration was also a factor, and Trump brilliantly packaged the message as also hurting the economy because of the resources they were taking up," McGuire added. "So, bottom line: when it hurts people’s pocketbooks, they will want a change. Whether half the country liked it or not, Trump was also a known commodity, and that helped him. People remembered his successful economic policies and felt he could steer the economy in the right direction once again."
HOW DO CONSUMER PRICES COMPARE IN THE BIDEN ERA WITH THE TRUMP ERA 4 YEARS AGO?
Ted Jenkin, co-founder and business consultant at oXYGen Financial, said that the heavy household credit card debt burden and struggling student loan borrowers reflected the economic challenges that households have faced.
"With Americans carrying more than $1.1 trillion of credit card debt and 50% of all student loan borrowers yet to make a repayment, the ability for many American families to just meet their monthly obligations has become increasingly difficult," Jenkin told FOX Business. "The economy was the No. 1 issue in the election because so many people are falling behind financially."
Grant Cardone, CEO of Cardone Capital, told FOX Business in an interview that while inflation was a contributing factor, the lack of income growth to outpace inflation was a more important factor.
"Inflation is a nice ghost to blame everything on, but the thing that handles inflation is growth, and we don't have the growth," Cardone said. "If my income doesn't grow, I definitely can't afford products or services being more expensive. Products and services have to become more expensive for people to do well."