American voters in seven swing states are feeling the pain of rising prices for household essentials, according to a Bloomberg News and Morning Consult poll that points to trouble for President Joe Biden’s effort to make the economy a centerpiece of his bid for a second term.
Three in four swing-state respondents said that prices have increased in the past month, in line with consumer price data showing that inflation rose 0.4% in September from the previous month. Prices are up 3.7% over the past year, though that’s less than half the pace of the pandemic-era highs.
The Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll found that when it came to handling the cost of everyday goods and services, voters trusted Republican front-runner Donald Trump over Biden by a margin of 12 percentage points. The gap was even wider for independents, whose votes are crucial to clinching an election.