Most Democrats think their key to winning back control of Congress in the midterms will be selling voters on an affordability agenda and bashing President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy.
But some in their party — running long-shot campaigns in rural regions against Republican incumbents — say all the affordability talk has lost the plot.
“Democrats on a national level have discovered ‘affordability’ as a winning strategy, as some magic bullet that’s going to win them elections all over the country,” Hallie Shoffner, who won the Democratic Senate primary in Arkansas earlier this week, told POLITICO in an interview.
“Established D.C Democrats like [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer [are] talking about affordability, and I’m sorry, but everybody in Arkansas is going to give him the side eye, because what does he know about affordability?” she added.
A spokesperson for Schumer said in a statement that he “knows that working families are being crushed by higher costs because of Donald Trump’s failed policies and his corrupt bargain with big corporations. That’s why Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats have been fighting to lower costs for people on everything from housing to energy to health care.”
After stinging defeats in 2024, Democrats bounced back in 2025’s off-year elections when Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani sailed to victory, each behind a campaign that centered on pocketbook issues and sought to frame Democrats as the party that could bring down prices for everyday Americans.
Now, party leaders want to ride that messaging into November amid falling approval of Trump’s handling of the economy. Spanberger was a special guest at House Democrats’ annual retreat last week, where she gave her advice for how to hammer an affordability message just one day after she skewered Trump over cost-of-living concerns during the Democratic rebuttal to his State of the Union address. And Republicans are increasingly worried that the outlook on the economy is weakening amid rising gas prices stemming from the war in Iran.
But some rural Democrats still aren’t convinced that the party is striking the right tone.
“It feels disingenuous,” said Callie Barr, who is running to flip Michigan’s 1st Congressional District.
“The standard of living for most folks in rural areas like mine has been declining for the past 40 years under both administrations,” Barr said. “And then all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Oh, affordability is now a talking point, maybe I can win an election off of it, I’m going to start using it in everything.’”
Barr and Shoffner said they hope to see national Democrats put the money where their mouth is by investing in “long-shot” races like theirs. “My hope is that actually there’s real teeth behind this, because I think people just don’t believe it,” Barr said.
Each has an uphill battle in their own right. Shoffner is running in Arkansas against incumbent Republican Sen. Tom Cotton, who has served in the Senate since he defeated Sen. Mark Pryor in 2014 — the last time a Democrat held the seat. Barr is running in a rematch against GOP Rep. Jack Bergman, who beat her by more than 21 points in 2024.
“It makes sense for the Democratic Party to reinvest themselves in places like us, like Arkansas, and give candidates like me with these gray-collar backgrounds a seat at the table — because I’m going to be honest with you, they might learn something about what it really means to talk about affordability,” said Shoffner, a sixth-generation farmer who had to shut down her family’s farm when she realized it couldn’t make money.
That’s similar to messaging that’s been championed by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.). The rural auto shop owner who flipped Washington’s last red district in 2022 has vocally criticized her party for being out of touch with the middle class.
“When you say affordability, people roll their eyes,” said Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist working with both candidates who is an alum of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. “In many of the areas [where] affordability has been a crisis, Dems aren’t investing or building infrastructure to do anything to mobilize human beings in those areas.”
The DNC last year announced a new program that gives $17,500 per month to each state party and an additional $5,000 per month to those in states run by Republicans, and the party this year has been buoyed by a string of overperformances, including in ruby-red districts. But much of the attention has focused on the most competitive races across battleground states.
Of course, it can also be a shrewd political tactic to blast the Democratic Party — which boasts a roster of stars from liberal, urban areas who remain deeply unpopular in conservative, rural ones. But Barr isn’t running her campaign with any labels that may be tied to her party ID. “Maybe you’re running on a ticket, but that shouldn’t be your whole identity,” she said.
“When I meet people, they’ll say, ‘Oh, what ticket are you on?’” Barr added. “And I always start with, ‘Well, I’m an American.’”
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