(TNND) — The economy is the top issue on the minds of voters this election, and inflation is their top economic concern.
A Gallup survey published a week ago showed the economy ranked as the most important issue among nearly two dozen asked of voters.
And a Bankrate survey published this week showed inflation, with 41%, ranked as Americans’ top economic-related concern related to this election.
Inflation was followed by health care costs (14%), affordable housing (11%) and jobs (8%) in the Bankrate survey, which only asked about financial-related issues.
“The economy is always the No. 1 issue, no matter what for voters,” said Todd Belt, the Political Management program director at George Washington University. “The thing about the economy is it has multiple dimensions. You have unemployment. You have the growth rate. You have consumer confidence. And you have inflation. And what the polls are telling us now is that people are mostly focused on inflation. That is a problem for Democrats, because when we ask people generally (who they trust to handle inflation), they say Republicans.”
Even though the rate of inflation has come down, prices are still high. And that’s what matters to voters, Belt said.
Annual inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022.
At roughly the same time, Federal Reserve monetary policymakers began ratcheting up their benchmark interest rate as a lever to tame inflation.
After a series of 11 interest rate increases between early 2022 and last summer, the Fed finally reversed course last month and began cutting rates.
The rate of annual inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, is now 2.4%.
But Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst Mark Hamrick said we should delineate between elevated prices and inflation.
Inflation has caused erosion of buying power.
Inflation has caused consumer prices to go up about 23% in the last five years.
“There’s nothing more ‘kitchen table’ than the economy, and this is a kitchen table election,” Belt said.
But there is, as with most issues, a stark partisan difference in how we perceive the economy.
Inflation was the top answer for both Republicans and Democrats in Bankrate’s survey.
But Inflation was cited by 56% of Republicans as their No. 1 economic issue, while only 28% of Democrats said the same.
Over half of all respondents to Bankrate’s survey said the economy is headed on the wrong track, but Republicans (83%) were much more likely than Democrats (27%) to share that opinion.
“In recent years, party has been the driver of perception of the ‘right track, wrong track’ question,” Belt said. “When there is a Democrat in office, Republicans will say we’re more likely to be on the wrong track. And when there is a Republican in office, vice versa. So, this is more of a reflection of the hyper-partisan climate we are in.”
Both Belt and Hamrick said voters give presidents too much credit and too much blame for the performance of the economy.
“There’s no lever in the Oval Office that allows the president to turn off inflation,” Hamrick said. “If there were, it would already been done.”
Hamrick said it’s easy for Americans to get caught up in the “noise” of the election cycle, but they’ll help their finances most by adhering to “timeless” best practices.
Most Americans aren’t saving enough, he said.
Take advantage while you still can from a high-yield savings account that can pay 4% or 5% over a year, Hamrick said.
Invest for the long-term, with a focus on retirement savings. That’s the right approach through both bull and bear markets, he said.
And prioritize getting rid of the costliest forms of interest.
Half of American cardholders carry credit card debt, according to another Bankrate survey.
“Election cycles come and go, but the need to be smart with our money and attentive to our financial goals persist over the long term,” Hamrick said.