Voters concerned about prices amid tariff rollout, upcoming midterms

By Brett Rowland
The Center Square

As President Donald Trump’s tariffs go into force and midterm elections come into focus, voters are more concerned about how much things cost than about any other issue.

The Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted by Noble Predictive Insights, surveyed 2,565 registered voters from Oct. 2-6, 2025, via opt-in online panel and text-to-web cell phone messages.

The poll found that 15% of registered voters cited price increases and inflation as their top issues, followed by government corruption (13%), the economy/jobs (11%), health care (9%), illegal immigration (8%), and crime/violence (7%).

“Name anything that’s getting less expensive,” pollster Mike Noble told The Center Square. “Literally everything is going up from insurance premiums to you name it. More and more is coming out of pocket.”

Noble said polls across the country show that voters are frustrated with high costs.

On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump told Americans he would rescue the economy and bring prices down.

Prices have continued to increase. Inflation this year is below the pandemic-era price increases in 2022, when inflation hit its highest level in decades. Still, lots of things are more expensive than they used to be. The price of coffee was up 20.9% over the 12 months ending in August, according to the Labor Department. Ground beef was up 12.8%. Bananas climbed 6.6%. Cereals, dairy, fruits and vegetables got more expensive.

The Labor Department warned this week that things could get worse as a result of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration – an issue voters think Trump has handled well.

“The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal workforce, results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers,” according to a notice in the Federal Register.

Trump’s tariff rollout has further complicated consumers’ pocketbooks. Major retailers such as Walmart, Home Depot, and others have said they will raise prices to cover the costs associated with tariffs.

According to a report from Goldman Sachs, U.S. consumers will pay the bulk of the cost of the tariffs, which are at the highest level in nearly a century. Goldman Sachs economists said American consumers will pay 55% of tariff costs, U.S. businesses will pay 22% and foreign exporters will pay 18%.

Voters have linked Trump’s economic policies to how they view his overall job performance. The same poll found that 51% of voters disapproved or strongly disapproved of Trump’s handling of the U.S. economy. About 47% of voters approve or strongly approve of Trump’s handling of the economy. About 3% of voters said they weren’t sure.

In the run-up to the 2024 election, voters were far more concerned about illegal immigration than they are now.

Noble said Trump is at least partially a victim of his own success on the issue. Trump has significantly decreased the flow of illegal immigration since re-taking the White House.

“Once voters think you’re doing a good job on it, they’re just not worried or concerned,” he told The Center Square.

Trump’s aggressive enforcement of immigration rules has been a hallmark of his second term in office. Trump won the presidency after campaigning heavily on his plans to address border issues. Since Trump returned to the White House, 2 million illegal aliens have left the U.S., including an estimated 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported and more than 400,000 deportations, according to a September report from the Department of Homeland Security.

The poll sample included 2,565 respondents, comprised of 978 Republicans, 948 Democrats, and 639 Independents, of which 262 lean toward neither major party, which Noble Predictive refers to as independents who, when asked if they leaned toward one of the major parties, chose neither.

The poll weighted each party – Republicans, Democrats, and True Independents – independently.

The margin of error is 2%.