Public affairs experts are weighing in to highlight the top issues that will impact the 2026 midterm elections.
“Prices are going to be the top issues that voters care about. But beyond that, voters also care about safety, security, those will be top on the ballot as well,” Matt Terrill, the managing partner of Firehouse Strategies, told The Daily Signal.
Terrill is a top public affairs expert having worked for both the National Republican Committee and the 2016 presidential campaign of then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. He noted some of the positive signs in the economy under the Trump administration.
“You’re seeing inflation down. You’re seeing egg prices down,” he said.
One notable cost that affects millions of Americans is the price of gasoline, which according to Consumer Affairs, has declined by about 21 cents per gallon from where it was in December 2024. Diesel has also been trending downward in recent weeks. Terrill emphasized the need for a holistic approach to reduce energy costs in the U.S.
When asked about what the GOP should do regarding messaging around those critical issues, Terrill emphasized that there would still be opportunities for Americans to receive economic relief in the upcoming months.
“Remind Americans, if you’re President [Donald] Trump and Republican candidates in 2026 about the deregulation efforts being done under President Trump’s watch, and remind Americans about what President Trump has been doing to bring investment into the U.S. economy,” Terrill explained, also noting the tax cuts that were enacted under the One Big Beautiful Bill.
“I think obviously the tax cuts on tips and overtime. That’s going to help with the affordability,” Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., who is running to represent Alabama in the Senate, added in an interview with The Daily Signal.
“I think part of this is just countering the narratives being pushed out by Democrats right now, and really the White House is drilling home what they’re doing to bring down energy costs, what they’re doing to bring down health care costs,” Terrill stated.
“I mean, D.C. is the only entity in America that creates inflation. And when we print dollars in D.C., it’s just, it’s ink on paper, and we can print it pretty fast, but if you’re out there trying to earn that money by the hour, our printed dollars compete against the ones that you actually earn in the market, and it just makes it difficult for families to survive,” Moore told The Daily Signal.
Moore contended that voters would also be concerned about the recently uncovered fraud perpetuated against American taxpayers in Minnesota that could tally as high as $9 billion.
“These people are taking tax dollars and stealing them from the Treasury, and so there has to be an accountability level there,” the Alabama congressman stated.
“Some people need to be removed from this country. They need to be denaturalized as citizens. Things that we can do to show the American people that we’re going to protect the overall national security, and the funds that they’re sending to us to manage without just letting these blue states and some of these places just waste their money,” Moore said.
The congressman also emphasized the importance of combatting crime as a way to alleviate costs on Americans.
“Things that we can do to lower crime and to also lower the theft of products and services makes things more affordable in the long haul,” Moore stated. He cited Trump’s deployment of the National Guard as an example of Republican success at combatting crime. Such was the resounding effect of the troops in Washington that even the city’s mayor acknowledged the subsequent decline in several categories of crime.
“When the American people are seeing National Guard members being attacked, or they’re seeing a young woman on a train in Charlotte being attacked, or what they’re seeing related to crime in Chicago, the issue of national security is top of mind,” Terrill said.
Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former State Department appointee during the first Trump administration, noted the many factors related to the affordability of housing.
“You had COVID where you had people fleeing cities towards the suburbs, and you saw the prices go sky high. And then you had inflation. The cost of building just was tremendously high. And then combine that all with interest rates. That’s a recipe for disaster,” Bartlett said.
He contended that members of Congress would have to “incentivize this without furthering expenses or giving more to the demand side” to help alleviate the issue but also noted that much of the problem stems from local governance like permitting land use.
“We can’t just run on the status quo. I think we absolutely need some new ideas, whether it’s from Congress, whether it’s from the White House, as to give a goal to the American voter and the American public towards the economy and society that we want to live in,” Bartlett said.
“There’s so many other aspects, including addiction, and that continues to be a plague in society with drugs, as this White House has highlighted, whether it is fentanyl or cocaine addiction, where it starts, how it’s trafficked,” Bartlett explained.
