American workers have soured dramatically on President Trump's economic stewardship, with a new national survey finding that workers now favor Democratic Party candidates 54 percent to 39 percent ahead of the 2026 midterms. The survey, published October 13, 2026 by the Economic Innovation Group and Echelon Insights, polled 1,507 workers between September 1–8 and reveals a collapse in support for the president's signature policies, particularly on the issue workers care about most: affordability. What's striking is the breadth of the reversal—workers across partisan lines say Trump's policies have worsened their economic problems, and even his 2024 voters are defecting on key measures.
On the cost of living, workers give Trump his worst marks of any issue surveyed. Just 22 percent rate his performance on inflation and affordability as good or excellent, while 62 percent call it poor. Even among those who voted for him in 2024, only 46 percent offer positive assessments. Sixty-eight percent of workers say their living costs have climbed since last September, and a mere 11 percent report that things have gotten more affordable. When asked which party has a better approach to the cost of living, workers now pick Democrats over Republicans 44 percent to 27 percent—a massive swing from the 2024 election survey, when Democrats held just a 1 percentage point edge at 37 percent to 36 percent. Trump's tariff agenda, once a political winner with blue-collar workers, has become a liability: those workers now oppose tariffs 58 percent to 36 percent, reversing a 3-point favorability margin from the 2025 survey. More than two-thirds of all workers believe tariffs have made their cost of living much or somewhat higher over the past year, a view held across every demographic, educational, political, and occupational group.
The report finds that workers have shifted toward trusting Democrats more than Republicans not only on trade, but also on immigration and taxes. Attitudes toward legal immigration have grown notably more positive, with 51 percent of workers now saying legal immigrants are definitely or probably an opportunity for their own careers—an 11 percentage point jump from last year. Only 19 percent view legal immigrants as a threat. High-skilled immigration enjoys even broader support: 65 percent back increasing it, including 62 percent of Trump's 2024 voters. On artificial intelligence, workers display ambivalence—43 percent call it an opportunity and 43 percent a threat—but among those who actually use AI at work, the large majority say it has made them more efficient, improved their work quality, and boosted job satisfaction. Workers also overwhelmingly reject government ownership stakes in private companies, with big majorities across all parties saying the government shouldn't be able to take such stakes even in key industries.
The authors write that the multiracial working-class coalition Republicans assembled in 2024 "has, it seems, been undone by the party's management of the economy." The data backs that up: Black and Hispanic workers now favor Democrats 69 percent to 27 percent and 63 percent to 30 percent, respectively. Among workers extremely likely to vote, Democrats hold a 59 percent to 39 percent advantage. The report attributes this reversal to a failure to deliver on the issue that eclipses all others—affordability unites workers across political, generational, educational, racial, and gender divides, with 68 percent saying housing costs and everyday essentials should be policymakers' top focus. The lesson, according to the authors, is that dissatisfaction with the cost of living spells bad news for the incumbent party, even when other indicators like job growth and stock markets are strong. As the report puts it: "It's the cost of living, stupid. Always was."