Costs, Iran voters’ top priorities for next Congress: Survey

A majority of respondents to a recent survey want the next Congress to focus on lowering the cost of living and winding down the Iran war .

Roughly 80 percent of the 1,119 respondents to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll said lawmakers should make lowering prices one of their highest priorities in the 120th Congress.

About 70 percent of respondents also said lawmakers should prioritize ending the Iran conflict , which is approaching the eight-month mark and has resulted in the deaths of 21 U.S. service members and gas prices of more than $4 per gallon on average.

Annual inflation has risen from 2.4 percent in February to 3.7 percent last month , according to the consumer price index . Energy prices were up 20.4 percent year over year after experiencing their largest monthly jump since March, the first full month of the war.

Democrats are seeking control of Congress for the remainder of President Trump’s second term in office. Democratic lawmakers and candidates have campaigned on blocking Trump’s tariffs and forcing him to end the Iran war.

“Two years ago, Donald Trump and MAGA extremists promised that they were going to lower the high cost of living on day one. But costs haven’t gone down, costs have gone up,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said this month on the campaign trail.

Republicans, meanwhile, have argued they should remain in power to help Trump implement his agenda after former President Biden’s four years in office. The president and GOP leaders have also blasted Democrats as “communists,” after multiple left-wing candidates won primaries earlier this year.

Only about 2 in 10 respondents to the AP-NORC poll want Congress to prioritize backing Trump’s agenda, including roughly 4 in 10 Republicans — a light show of support for the president’s policies among GOP voters.

The survey, which the pollsters conducted from Oct. 8-12, has a margin of error of 3.9 percentage points.