Trump digs in his heels as red state voters choose 'affordability' over ballrooms

Atlanta Journal-Constitution senior political columnist Patricia Murphy said President Donald Trump is just not getting the message that red state voters are sending him.

Ever since the 2024 election results, Democrats have “clearly gotten the memo” that consumer costs are too high, said Murphy.

“Former Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond said people he talks to around the state are ‘tired of the foolishness’ and just want someone to make it easier to pay for rent and groceries,” reports Murphy, adding that Republican-turned Democrat former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan said he’d convert the state’s $16 billion budget surplus into a “jump-start” fund to help Georgians go to school, start a business, buy a home “or otherwise move their lives forward.”

“Everybody is dealing with affordability and we’re tired of politicians telling you they’re going to fix it, and then they get elected and they just keep going on with their own agenda,” Duncan said.

Murphy said it would seem the nation’s top Republican would get the message, too, after Democrats delivered “a 26-point rout” in two usually low-profile races for the Georgia Public Service Commission, the board that regulates Georgia Power.

What happened was the economy. The all-Republican Public Service Commission had raised electricity rates for Georgians six times in the last two years, adding an average of more than $40 per month to power bills on top of what people were already paying.

“With the cost of housing, groceries and other household necessities galloping upward, it doesn’t take a political scientist to know that increasing energy rates would not go unnoticed, especially in the cities where municipal races were on the ballot Tuesday, too,” said Murphy.

And while Democrats hit a rotation of nonstop talk about monthly bills, Murphy said Republicans mostly talked about the Democrats and put identity politics ahead of pocketbooks. Public Service Commission incumbent Tim Echols warned that the Democrat challenging him would force woke “DEI” politics onto the utility.

Democrats learned their lesson in 2024 and kept the conversation about family budgets and rising costs. And even many Republicans are catching on to the problem. Murphy notes Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the PSC elections were “a referendum on affordability. We need to address that.”

Georgia technically is a “battleground state” but it is considerably more red than blue, with Republicans holding every constitutional office in the state and dominating both chambers in the Georgia General Assembly.

“They’ve got money, incumbents, a ground game, nine of 14 U.S. House seats and just sent President Donald Trump back to the White House,” Murphy said, so it would be a mistake not to take responsibility and do battle with rising costs as the top priority.

“Republicans are on board and Democrats are on board. So message received, right? Maybe not by everyone,” said Murphy. “Two days after the election, the White House put out a good-news press release that the prices of turkey, frozen vegetables and premade mashed potatoes are down ahead of Thanksgiving, ‘proof that under President Trump’s leadership, America is winning the war on high prices.’”

But Murphy points out the same report also noted that the overall cost of groceries is even higher than it was last year, which was “something that voters could have told Republicans on Tuesday — and did.”

Read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution report at this link.