More than 70% of Americans now say the government is doing a bad job of managing the economy — a historic high. What that means for the midterms

Edwards notes that, from 1978 through 2024, approximately half of Americans said the government was doing a “fair job” in running the economy. As of 2026, however, that outlook has changed. Edwards reports that “31% of Americans said the federal government is doing a poor job at economic policy [and] for the last two years, it has averaged 65% and is hanging out now in the 70s.”

Edwards said it’s no big secret why so many U.S. citizens are down on Team Trump’s handling of the economy.

“Americans are truly aware of the detrimental effects, especially on the prices of tariffs and the war on Iran,” she noted of what the economists behind the data told her. “They know that means bad news for them for a long time.”

Economic woes could sway the mid-term elections

While no single issue may shape national elections, the economy usually ranks at the top of factors that influence voters at the polls.

“The economy continues to rank as the top voting issue this year, across the political spectrum: 84% of registered voters – including 88% of those who support Democrats and 82% who back Republicans – say it is very important to their vote,” states the Pew Research Center, which regularly tracks the mood of registered voters across the country.

Economic experts say it’s bottom-line pocketbook issues that particularly vex Americans in 2026.

“It’s prices, mostly, and the numbers show it,” Mehdi Zare, CFA, founder of Washington, D.C.-based Bina Capital, told Moneywise.

In August 2026, Zare noted the U.S. consumer price index was roughly 28% higher than in January 2021, annual inflation was 3.4% in August, and gasoline was 27.4% more expensive than a year earlier.

Slivers of sunlight appear in the U.S. economic landscape, as GDP grew at a 2.2% annual pace in the second quarter of 2026.

“Meanwhile, in September the Federal Reserve said the U.S. economy was expanding at a solid pace,” Zare noted.

But slower inflation just means prices are rising more slowly, not that they’re falling.

“People experience the economy through monthly bills, job security and whether they believe policymakers have a workable plan,” Adrianna Moore, founder and CEO of House of Chaos, a strategic advisory and communications firm, told Moneywise said. “Slower inflation does not erase the higher prices families are already paying for necessities.”

And they compare today’s grocery and gas bills to what they paid a few years ago, not last month, Zare explained.

What comes next

Now, voters seem to be doubling down on the economic outlook with the upcoming U.S. midterms.

“Politicians don’t have to have a plan, but voters need to believe that they do,” Moore said.

But public policy analysts say voters are losing faith in the government’s ability to strengthen the economy. And when Americans lose confidence in the government’s ability to manage the economy, that pessimism influences their financial decisions, and that’s not good news for incumbents in both political parties.

“Less visibility and confidence delays larger purchases, and decreases the cost of purchase,” Babak Hafezi, adjunct professor of International Business at American University, told Moneywise. “Households may opt to substitute their purchases for cheaper alternatives or delay or postpone purchases. In the service industry, they may decrease the number of purchases.”

For example, Hafezi said getting a haircut may happen once every six weeks instead of every four weeks, and house cleaning may move from every two weeks to every four weeks, and be canceled several times.