'I'm barely getting by': Why these voters say the economy is their top issue in 2024

RYE, N.H. − This is when she thought life would get a little easier.

Kelly McDonough says she and her husband have worked hard and put four children through college. Now they're nearing retirement and would like to save money on a smaller home.

But rising mortgage rates have made it difficult for the empty-nesters to downsize. If they bought a new house now, they'd pay 8% interest on a mortgage. Their current mortgage rate is 2.5%. It would cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars more over the life of a new home loan.

"We need to make sure that we're responsible. We’re not going to leave it to our kids to pay for us,” McDonough, 57, told USA TODAY after a rally in Rye, New Hampshire, for Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis.

Many voters such as McDonough, who say the economy is a top concern in the 2024 election, have raised questions about President Joe Biden's ability to lead in a second term. Some say he's too old. Others say he's out of touch with how Americans are struggling financially.

When asked which party front-runner they trusted more to handle the economy, 41% of those surveyed favored Biden, while 52% said they would bank on former President Donald Trump, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll in October. And almost 50% of those surveyed said they believe the U.S. economy is in either a recession or depression. 

It's not just national polls. The results are also grim for Biden in battleground states like his native Pennsylvania, where 49% of those surveyed in a recent Franklin & Marshall College Poll said Trump is most prepared to handle the economy. Biden got the nod from 38% of those surveyed.

McDonough's children, ages 24 to 30, are struggling to pay off college loans and buy homes of their own – something she said is weighing on her this election season.  

“We have a couple of sons that right now can’t buy a house. They don’t have $500,000 cash, no inspections,” she said, referring to demands sometimes placed on homebuyers in the competitive and turbulent real estate market.  

Though McDonough supported Trump in the 2020 election, this year she said it’s time for the party to “move on.” In October, she hadn’t made a firm decision on whom she's backing in the state’s first-in-the-nation primary, but the economy is a big factor.

'Nothing left'

Maria Suarez, 26, sees a lot of tourists as a hospitality manager in Philadelphia, but she doesn’t have much money to travel herself.

“There’s nothing left every month after I pay the bills,” she said.

Suarez sees pictures and videos of people her age taking vacations, going to “fancy dinners” and seemingly buying every new outfit peddled by an influencer.

“I don’t know how other people afford their lives,” she said. “I’m barely getting by.”

Housing, food and utilities are her highest costs – “all the things I need to survive.”

Suarez doesn’t consider herself much of a “political person,” but she says she pays attention when she needs to. And she has concerns about 2024.

Her views are probably more in line with Biden than most Republican candidates, but she believes the Democratic Party needs new leadership.

“I think he’s a good person, but I kind of wish he wasn’t running again,” Suarez said of Biden. “I just think he’s been in politics too long or is too old to really understand what life is like for people like me. I wouldn't vote for Trump, but I'd at least consider someone other than Biden who has a plan to make life more affordable.”

Bidenomics − the president's plan to grow "from the middle out and bottom up" − isn't well known or well understood, she said.

"If Bidenomics is being broke the day after payday, then I don't want it."

'Not fantastic'

Kyle Eldridge, 33, owns a small business in Exeter, New Hampshire, and is in a stage of life when many Americans have historically increased their income, grown their careers, started families and purchased homes. Or at least that used to be part of the dream.

But Eldridge, owner of home goods store New England Mercantile, told USA TODAY the economy is “not fantastic right now.”

His business took off during the COVID-19 pandemic when many people were working remotely and focused on improving their homes.

Now, though, he's feeling the effects of inflation and high shipping costs.

Eldridge said he works 16 hours a day, seven days a week. He doesn’t have health insurance and says he can't take sick days.

“I'm exhausted,” Eldridge said. 

He said he’s starting to speak up as one of the younger business owners in town.

“It's frustrating that the older generation doesn't get it," Eldridge said. "I think this older generation doesn't understand the struggles of what it's like in this day and age for us as younger individuals. You know, they didn't have the student loans that we're dealing with, they didn't have the auto loans that we're dealing with. It's kind of crazy."

Biden, 80, is part of that older generation, but Eldridge didn't mention him by name. Instead, the shop owner told USA TODAY he doesn’t believe in "the system" and called for an "age cap" in public service.

“I think everyone in our government right now is extremely selfish,” Eldridge said. “They don't actually care for our economy. I think we need a massive, massive turnover in our officials from the state, local, presidential, Senate, Congress. I think we need a full clean slate.”

'Hard for everybody'

Cheryl Milligan, 67, and her husband thought they'd enjoy retirement in a smaller house and expected to find an affordable one. So far, it's a dream out of reach in Seabrook, New Hampshire.

Milligan, a retired teacher and Republican, said they may have to move back to Oklahoma to find something within their budget. 

“I just think that's kind of unfair to have to do that. We've been here for almost nine years,” Milligan said. “But everything's expensive right now, not just here. It's hard for everybody.” 

Milligan voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 and said she would vote for him again if he won the party nomination. But her first choice for the job, she said, is former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. 

“I just love that she says what she thinks, but she's not rude about it,” Milligan said. “I don't think she could ever hurt anybody, but she knows what's going on in the world, along with overseas and here in the United States.” 

'Can't blame Biden for everything'

Jack Riggsbee is 80 − the same age as the president − and he'd prefer a younger Democrat on the ballot in 2024.

But if Biden is the nominee, Riggsbee is sticking with him.

The retired computer science professor in Reno, Nevada, said anyone who thinks the economy is not great is "ignorant to what he's done."

"Nobody in any other party would have handled the economy half as well as Biden," Riggsbee said. "Yeah, we have inflation, but we've had inflation all over the world, and the U.S. has fared better than other countries."

High inflation followed the pandemic, he said. "You can't lay that at the feet of Biden. You can't blame Biden for everything."

Riggsbee also says Biden can't be blamed for all the financial pressures younger voters feel.

"I was the first person in my family to graduate from college. I had loans. It wasn't easy for me, either," he said. "You have to buck up and do what it takes to make it work. I know that's not what they want to hear, and I can sympathize."

He adds that he's saying that from the perspective of someone whose mortgage rate is 1.5%, not 8%.

'Hurting my pocketbook'

Michelle Disbrow, 58, is a teacher in Mesa, Arizona, and her house is paid off. But that doesn't mean she has it easy financially. She said she still feels squeezed.

The independent voter has a child at home, one in college and one living on her own. Disbrow would like to retire, but she can't because she needs the health insurance that comes with her job.

"Inflation is hurting my pocketbook," she said. "I don't like interest rates so high. I had to buy a car, and my payment is too high.

"But the job market is good," Disbrow added.

Though some voters blame Biden for the economy, "I don't blame him," she said. "The pandemic messed everything up."

The problem with Bidenomics

Even as the U.S. gross domestic product grows and inflation shrinks, some Democrats caution against touting a strong economy in the 2024 general election campaign.  

Rep. Steven Horsford, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, told Politico he warned the White House that Bidenomics is a message that focuses too much on Biden and not enough on voters.

“We have to do a better job framing this not so much for one person − for the office of the presidency − but for the people," Horsford, D-Nev., told Politico.

Steve Schmidt, co-founder The Lincoln Project and a strategist for Rep. Dean Phillips’ Democratic primary challenge against Biden, argued that Biden’s praise of the economy is an “act of political malfeasance" that shows a disconnect between the administration and voters. 

“There is no campaign strategy mistake as big as labeling this economy Bidenomics,” Schmidt said last week shortly after Phillips announced his candidacy in New Hampshire.  

Schmidt believes lauding the administration’s economic achievements is a blunder “50 trillion” times worse than former President George W. Bush’s famous 2003 “mission accomplished” speech declaring an end to major combat operations in Iraq as U.S. military casualties from the conflict mounted.  

“Biden is the one who's saying this is the best economy ever and he's FDR,” Schmidt said. “No one feels like that.” 

'Hard to stay in business'

Scott Bailey, 64, a voter in Charlotte, North Carolina, said it's tough to hang on to his small restoration company.

And he's over budget on the forever home. “I just checked what I spent on the construction loan and ... I'm at about $687,000 on a $450,000 budget,” he said. 

In his company, costs have gone up anywhere from 25% to 40%, which is causing cash flow problems because expenses are so high.

“I mean, I have 18 employees and I have to pay costs of fuel, and construction materials keep going up so much that it's getting really hard to stay in business," Bailey said.

He also hasn't received as many referrals for work − a decline that started during the summer.

When homeowners faced property damage from fires, floods and weather disasters, they used to call Bailey and pay for the restoration service with their homeowner's insurance check. Now, they need the money.

"Instead of getting their property fixed by a professional, they're trying to do it themselves and pocket the money,” Bailey said. 

These are some of the reasons the economy is the No. 1 issue for Bailey, an independent who said he is supporting Trump in the primary.

“He has a tendency to talk too much, but he has the other people and the expertise − being a business owner himself − to understand how the economy works,” Bailey said.

He complained that "reckless spending" has thrown the economy "into a tailspin."

"I think the average car payment is two months behind is what I've been reading. You can't afford a car. I mean, I go to the grocery store, walk out with three bags of groceries and I spent over $100," Bailey said. "I don't know what Bidenomics is, to be honest with you. I don't think it's ever been clearly defined, but whatever they think it is, it's not helping the average American.”