SPOKANE, Wash. – According to the Pew Research Center, only 28% of Americans think the economy is good or excellent, while 31% think it is poor. In the same January survey, 44% of Democrats or Democratic leaners say the economy is excellent or good, compared to only 13% of Republicans and GOP leaners.
“I think that drives from what we hear on a daily basis,” Gonzaga Assistant Professor of Economics Ryan Herzog said. “If you are more of that Democrat voter, you are hearing Biden’s administration, and they are big cheerleaders of the economy. They’re promoting a lot of wage growth (and) employment growth stories… If you are more of a conservative voter, you’re hearing more of the Trump administration talk about inflation, price increase, grocery prices, gasoline prices. So you’re being inundated with some of that negative side of the economy.”
Herzog said campaigning on the economy always happens during election cycles, with the party in power usually boasting about its strengths, while the opposition focuses on the weaknesses.
“We know the economy is a huge driving force in how people are going to vote,” Herzog said.
While Herzog says people’s choice of media may play a role in how people view the economy, he also says people who boast about low unemployment and high wage growth may want to take a step back when someone says the economy isn’t working for them.
“The economy from a high, macro-level is great, but we are seeing a pretty big divide in how the economy is working for individuals,” he said. “My message to someone who thinks the economy is not helping them or not supporting them is that you’re not wrong in that belief. I think that’s one of the things where we struggle – we hear that message, we instantly want to say, ‘but what about this, this, this and this.’ If anything, what we’ve learned over the last three, four, five years since the pandemic is economic shocks have hit our economy and how the affect households is very different.”
