what goes up?
The demographics most worried about inflation
Inflation is up, and it's causing nonwhite voters more stress than their white counterparts, a new Wall Street Journal poll finds.
Specifically, 35 percent of Black, Hispanic, Asian-American, and other voters who identify as something other than white said the current levels of inflation are triggering "major financial strain in their lives," the Journal found. That's compared to 28 percent of white voters.
Meanwhile, Black women and Hispanic men, "both at 44 percent, reported the highest proportions of major strain among various demographic and gender combinations," the Journal writes.
Unsurprisingly, people who make the least money were also most likely to cite financial challenges as a result of inflation; nearly half of those with incomes less than $60,000 "reported major financial strain, while just 13 percent of those making $150,000 or more did so."
Overall, however, 58 percent of poll participants said inflation "was causing them major or minor financial strain," up from 56 percent in November, the Journal writes.
Dissatisfaction with the economy, despite plentiful jobs, could harm Democrats in the upcoming midterms if conditions don't approve before then.
"Lower-income people clearly have bigger pain points," Democratic pollster John Anzalone told the Journal. "It shouldn't be surprising, quite frankly, that you would see some softening [support for Democrats], even among African-Americans and Latinos and other people of color."
When asked to rank the top four challenges ahead of President Biden and Congress, "rising prices and the economy were more often picked by nonwhite voters than white voters as the most important issue, 60 percent to 47 percent," per the Journal. Republicans and independent voters were also more concerned about inflation than Democrats.
The Journal poll was conducted by Impact Research and Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, who surveyed 1,500 registered voters from March 2-7. Results have a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.