The economy and inflation are top of mind for all voters right now. Addressing these issues directly is critical to ensuring our audience feels that their struggles are seen and heard. See also our research and messaging on healthcare.
Research
Our analysis of the 2022 midterm election, conducted in partnership with Mindbridge, found that lack of social significance combined with economic anxiety were predictive of vote choice among moderate white women. A recent survey by the One For All Committee indicates this trend will continue; white women respondents said the economy was far and away the most important issue (40%) in deciding who to vote for in the 2024 presidential election, followed by healthcare as a distant second (10%).
We conducted an audience understanding survey in 2021 to learn how moderate women are thinking about the economy and inflation.
- Frustration, anger, disgust, and anxiety are common feelings about rising costs.
- Several themes emerged including an emphasis on fairness, caring for one’s family, and a desire for safety and stability.
Additional audience understanding surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, and message testing in 2023 provided a deeper level of understanding of our audience on this issue.
- They were generally pessimistic about the ability of the government to provide solutions to help people like them make ends meet.
- The majority, however, showed strong foundational support for caregiver assistance (e.g., child care, elder care). There was even relatively high support for making a personal sacrifice to enable the government to act on those issues.
- All of our audience segments reflected that some piece of their identity was related to caregiving, even those without children.
- Barriers to overcome when talking about the economy with moderate women include government trust issues and managing perceptions of resource scarcity/having to prioritize the needs of one’s in-group.
“Prices are higher than I have ever seen them all over the country. The president doesn’t seem to care about the working class and how his decisions or whoever is making them FOR him affect us.”
Conservative white woman
Messaging Insights
Tips to consider when messaging to this audience:
- Recognize that people are struggling and meet them at those struggles. For example, start by directly acknowledging the impact of rising prices with a relatable story.
- Utilize a trusted messenger who cares about a common value like fairness, safety, security
, or hard work. - Use a personal and conversational tone and tell stories from a first-person perspective.
- Highlight government successes and programs that helped people better their economic situation in a tangible way (e.g., accessible broadband, Medicaid/Medicare, unemployment benefits).
- Center your audience and give them some agency to make a change, such as “Elect people who. . .” or “Our politicians should. . .”. Assigning explicit blame often backfired with our audience, but identifying out-of-touch politicians and greedy corporations as playing a role was an effective strategy.
- Offer something concrete to be for that could help with rising costs (e.g., renewable energy) rather than focusing on broad things to be against (e.g., inflation) which can feel out of one’s control.
- Be careful not to be overly optimistic about economic conditions in a way that conflicts with people’s current lived experiences.
- Given the strong support for issues related to the economy of caregiving, this is a helpful area of focus to highlight the programs, policies, and politicians who are watching out for caregivers. Effective messaging strategies:
- Center children (as opposed to parents) as the ultimate recipients of care policies.
- Discuss elder care and the role elders play in childcare.
- Focus less on individuals (to sidestep the question of who “deserves” help) and focus more on the system that can benefit all (America is a rich country that can easily provide these important services).
The following are some of our effective messages related to the economy.
| With costs rising, I’m making hard choices. Especially at the grocery store where I look at my cart and figure out what can stay and what can go. Do I put back the milk and cereal? No, kids need those. The bacon? No, Wayne’s a bacon and eggs guy. Maybe the hamburger which used to be reasonable but not anymore? Then I see Kroger just had record profits and their CEO goes, “A little bit of inflation is always good for our business.” We need to elect leaders who go after these companies when they price gouge us like that.” | +15pp Meets the audience at their struggles and provides a tangible way to make positive change. |
| My dad always said “If you’re gonna do it, do it right.” He valued a job well done, and I’m proud I passed his strong work ethic to my sons. While some kids think the world owes them something, my boys work hard without complaint. It kills me that the jobs left in our town don’t pay fair wages or offer benefits. My boys work long hours and still barely support their families. I want a better future for their kids. That’s why I’m supporting the infrastructure bill and the jobs it will bring to towns like ours. | +12pp Speaks to the value of hard work and acknowledges real-world concerns about fair wages and affordability. |
Turnkey Creative
Why it works
Evokes patriotism
and effectively uses saliency, allowing the audience to quickly recognize and relate to the messenger.