Soaring prices for gas, medicine and other cost-of-living essentials are preoccupying Americans as a record 47.9 million have already voted in next week's US midterm elections, with participation surging in key battleground states.
A whopping 84 percent of voters who have cast their ballots early listed the economy as their biggest concern this election cycle, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
Fuel costs have skyrocketed around the world since the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran in February.
US gas prices rose 9.1 percent in September alone, according to official figures, a headache for residents in a state like Florida, where most people rely on cars to get around.
"It affects transportation, it affects goods, it affects everything," Matthew Moore, a 63-year-old attorney, said after he cast his ballot early.
Is it too late?
US President Donald Trump won reelection in 2024 in part because of his campaign promise to lower prices, which had also increased during the term of his predecessor Joe Biden.
William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank, said two of Trump's decisions this term have directly contributed to cost pressures: launching the war on Iran and slapping tariffs on trade partners.
"It's within the president's power to remove most of the tariffs that he's imposed. It's within the president's power to end the war that he began," Galston said.
For some voters, however, it's too late.
"My vote was cast based upon my feelings about how they have handled the stewardship that the voters have given them," said Michael Childs, 62.
The White House, for its part, insists that Trump's policies are revitalising the US economy and making life more affordable for Americans.
But millions of households across the United States find it harder than ever to make ends meet.
"The financial hardship is creeping up in America, particularly the middle class," said Symeria Hudson, the CEO of United Way Miami, a non-profit, non-partisan organisation focused on improving the health, education and financial well-being of local communities.
Record early voting
The University of Florida's Election Lab had recorded 47,922,669 early votes nationwide by midday, surpassing the previous midterm record of 45.9 million cast ahead of Election Day in 2022.
The surge is especially pronounced in states with fiercely contested Senate races that could determine control of the chamber during the final two years of President Donald Trump's presidency.
In Texas, more than six million people had voted early by Wednesday, according to official figures, with in-person turnout running around 50 percent ahead of the same stage in 2022.
North Carolina's election board reported early voting up nearly 37 percent on the same point four years ago, while South Carolina surpassed its entire 2022 early vote total on Monday, with five days of early voting still to go.
In Kansas, where Republican Senator Roger Marshall faces a tough re-election fight, advance ballots were running around two-thirds ahead of 2022 last week, according to the secretary of state's office.
In states that record voters' party affiliation, registered Democrats have accounted for a substantially larger share of early ballots than Republicans.
Election Lab figures showed Democrats making up around 44 percent of early voters in those states, compared with 31 percent for Republicans and 25 percent for unaffiliated or minor-party voters.
Not to read too much
University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald, who oversees the Election Lab, has pointed to rising participation among Black and Hispanic voters in states that report racial and ethnic data, with particularly strong turnout in heavily Hispanic communities along the Texas-Mexico border.
In Georgia, where early in-person voting broke the state's midterm record on Thursday, women accounted for 56 percent of ballots cast by that day, compared with 44 percent for men.
But experts warn against interpreting the figures as a prediction of the election outcome.
A voter's party registration does not reveal which candidates they supported, and tens of millions more Americans are expected to cast ballots on Tuesday.
In recent elections, Republicans have tended to turn out in greater numbers on Election Day, potentially narrowing or reversing the Democrats' early advantage.
And higher early participation does not necessarily translate into higher overall turnout, since some voters may simply be casting ballots sooner than in previous elections.
