As catalpa flowers bloomed along the Des Moines River in early June, this reporter kicked off a nine-state journey talking to voters in competitive races that could determine control of Congress in the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.
During the primaries, voter concerns were focused on AI and data centers, but by the time leaves began to fall over yard signs in October, opinions had expanded to broader topics such as high prices, the war in Iran, and Trump’s immigration policies.
Here are four key topics that came up most during scores of in-person interviews with voters across swing states.
Cost of Living
High prices at the pump and in the grocery aisle remain a top concern for voters.
Gas prices, which surged after the war in Iran started on Feb. 28, have Democratic voters fuming, while Republicans said they’re willing to absorb the temporary hit because it stopped Iran from having a nuclear weapon.
At the Putnam County Republican Party Lincoln Reagan Dinner in Ohio in early October, Republican Kristine Cupp said she was willing to deal with high gas prices if it means containing the threat from Iran.
“Do you want a country that’s free, or do you want gas and we make sure it’s cheap?” Cupp said, adding, “I don’t think the administration could have done any better of a job” of making it very clear that Iran was a threat.
Nearly three hours away in The Buckeye State, retiree Stephen Fitz sported a “Blue Wave Voter” shirt with about a dozen people in a small protest outside Republican Sen. Jon Husted’s Cleveland office on Oct. 7.
Fitz, who says he switched from being a Republican to a Democrat, blamed Trump for raising the cost of living, which prompted an unusual lifestyle change.
“I sold my car, and I ride my bike most places,” Fitz said.
To him, keeping the aging car in this economy was “just another expense” amid rising costs, now that his four children are adults in their 20s and 30s.
But he said he feels bad for his children who face hurdles with housing, gas prices, the cost of groceries, and basic needs.
“My son’s work boots wore out, and he needed new steel-toed work boots, and that was a hardship in order to pay for that,” Fitz said. “It’s crazy. It shouldn’t be that way.”
The frustration is not limited to Democratic voters in urban areas.
Krista Box, a casino worker in Mississippi, said she’s voting for Democrats such as U.S. candidate Scott Colom because he’s promised to raise the federal minimum wage to help pay for rising costs.
“It‘ll change everybody’s lives because everything is going up now,” Box said. “Gas is going up, groceries are going up, and if we get higher wages, then we’ll be able to afford to buy groceries and get gas in the car to go to work and school.”
The federal minimum wage sits at $7.25 and has not been raised since the summer of 2009.
Iran Conflict
The majority of voters interviewed want to see an end to the war in Iran but have different opinions about how the Trump administration has handled it.
Democrats, such as Iowa voter Mema Keco, heavily criticized the conflict.
“War is not beneficial for anyone, and we’re losing a lot of people, and it’s going to hurt our allies, and it’s been hurting us,” Keco said outside an early voting polling location in Des Moines, Iowa.
Caden, a student at Iowa State University, said his politics shifted from Republican to Democrat this year after the U.S. and Israeli militaries joined forces to attack Iran on Feb. 28.
“I’ve seen what Trump has been doing with Israel; that’s kind of my main reason why I don’t entirely like him anymore,” Caden said. “I feel like he’s doing too much with them.”
Independent voter Dan Shadrake, an IT consultant in Cleveland, Ohio, wants the United States out of Iran too.
“If anything, it’s made matters worse in the Middle East rather than better,” Shadrake told The Epoch Times during a protest in downtown Cleveland.
Shadrake, who served in the U.S. Navy for four years during the Vietnam era, suggested that new leadership at the top is needed.
“Maybe we should hire some smarter people to run things like wars for the United States,” Shadrake said. “Get some other people involved, because I’m pretty sure Trump and Hegseth aren’t our brightest bulbs in that regard.”
At the same protest, Judy Routhier, a Democrat, said she wasn’t surprised that Trump started the war in Iran.
“I fully expected that he was lying when he said he would end all wars on day one, and guess what? He didn’t end all wars on day one. In fact, he started more wars,” Routhier said.
In Wyoming, Republican Senate candidate Harriet Hageman, who has openly supported the war in Iran, has a strong lead into Nov. 3, with the Cook Political Report predicting the race will be a “Solid Republican” win.
Her opponent, Democrat James Byrd, told The Epoch Times that he thought Hageman could lose votes over her support for Trump’s policies and urged voters to send a message to Washington.
“We’ve had enough of the crazies,” Byrd said after he won his primary election on Aug. 18. “Bring some moderate people, and if we don’t have moderate people, this is where I come in. I’m the Democrat hoping to fill that void. You want to send a message to the Republican Party, vote in a Democrat.”
Immigration
Republicans and Democrats are split on the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
On Oct. 16, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed a 95 percent drop in southwest border apprehensions compared to the Biden administration, alongside the first-ever fiscal year with zero Border Patrol releases.
Republican voters praised the Trump administration’s immigration policies and want to keep supporting the cause.
“We’ve got a secure border for the first time in a long time,” Iowa Republican Mike Sassman said after a town hall for Republican gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn. “We’re seeing actions being taken to take out the illegal immigrants who shouldn’t be here and to send them back to their countries.”
Ohio Republican Kathleen Wilson, who supports Trump’s immigration policies, said that contributed to her vote.
“My husband and my son were in the trades, and the illegals that have infiltrated the trades have taken a lot away from our skilled workers and lowered the quality of work that’s being done, and there are no repercussions for them,” Wilson said.
Wilson voiced support for voter ID at election sites to ensure that only American citizens can vote.
Wilson, who was interviewed during the 2026 Putnam County Lincoln Reagan Dinner on Oct. 8, noted that Americans have to show identification for other activities.
“You have to show an ID if you want to go to that bar and buy a beer,” Wilson said, pointing at the cash bar near the entrance of the packed fundraiser.
Democrats who spoke to The Epoch Times did not bring up immigration enforcement as one of their main concerns this cycle, despite prolonged protests in Minneapolis in January after incidents involving immigration officers resulted in the deaths of two protesters.
Data Centers
Residents across many states don’t feel like local leaders are hearing their concerns about data centers and are willing to make their opinions crystal clear at the ballot box.
In Emporia, Kansas, a community with more “No Data Center” lawn signs than stoplights, residents have organized to oust the city leaders who considered supporting the tech expansion.
Local efforts went viral in July when high school physics teacher Lux Claridge was arrested for clapping in opposition to the data centers at an Emporia City Commission meeting. Authorities dropped the charges about a month later.
Claridge told The Epoch Times he didn’t feel city leaders were hearing the community’s concerns.
“I don’t want them to spend, you know, five to 10 years building a data center, only for the AI bubble to finally burst and crash,” Claridge said.
Claridge and his wife, Jessica Danford, added that they were “all in” on supporting Democrat Cindy Holscher as the next governor of Kansas over Republican Ty Masterson due to Holscher’s proposed moratorium on data centers.
During the Arizona primary, one of the main topics that energized voters to head to the polls in the rural town of Marana was how local leadership advanced rezoning applications for a data center.
Voters in the area had mixed reactions to the proposals. Some voted for the town council members who support the developments, while others tried to oust them with their vote.
“There’s a lot of talk about water usage and electricity concerns,” Olivia, a Republican, said. “It’s going to make our electricity bills go up, and we don’t want that.”
Voters in Wyoming said their negative view of data centers played a big part in their decision at the polling booth during the primary.
Residents in Cheyenne were frustrated that construction-related wastewater from Meta’s Cheyenne Data Center contaminated the city’s reuse water system with the naturally occurring bacterium Cupriavidus gilardii.
But Republicans told The Epoch Times that they support data center expansion when the proposals are well thought out.
Michael Schaefer, a Republican voter in the Toledo, Ohio, area, said he liked the multi-point data center regulation plan proposed by Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
“Everything he had to say about data centers, in particular, he wants them to be lowering energy costs, costs in surrounding communities, lowering property taxes in the surrounding communities, strictly no construction on farmland, all that stuff, it’s exactly what I wanted to hear from him,” Schaefer said.
“I’m a proponent under the right circumstances,” said Deb Cook, a Republican industrial engineer in Findlay, Ohio, during a Republican fundraiser.
Cook said she supported Ramaswamy’s multi-point plan.
“They need to provide their own power,” Cook added. “They need to limit the water usage, and they need to put their power back in the grid, just like he said.”
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