Focus Groups: Deep Anxiety About the Economy Drives Undecided Voters in Two Key Senate Races

Concerns about the economy and high costs are driving the thinking of undecided voters in Iowa and Georgia, according to new focus group conversations conducted this week, as the two states barrel toward Election Day as central battlegrounds in the fight for Senate control.

"Nothing Has Gotten Better"

"Nothing has gotten better as far as the cost of living, inflation — food is astronomical, gas," said Patty O., a 59-year-old Georgia Republican who voted for Donald Trump in 2024. "The cost of living is so high right now." Patty was one of a dozen voters up for grabs in the two Senate races who participated in focus groups produced by Syracuse University alongside research firms Engagious and Sago, and observed by NBC News.

Who Was in the Room

The group comprised six independents, five Republicans, and one Democrat. Nine of the twelve voted for Trump for president in 2024, when he carried both Iowa and Georgia, while three supported then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Notably, all but three of the voters said they feel more anxious about the economy today than when Trump returned to office, and eight said Trump isn't focused enough on the issue.

Economic Anxiety Dominates Over Other Issues

Perhaps the most striking finding from the sessions was how thoroughly economic concerns overshadowed other major national issues. "Among these undecided voters, pervasive economic anxiety is the animating issue in the midterms — not Iran, not immigration, not Israel/Gaza," said Rich Thau of Engagious, who moderated the sessions. That framing is notable given how dominant those other stories — the ongoing Iran war, immigration enforcement, and Middle East diplomacy — have been in national headlines throughout the year; for these specific undecided voters, none of it appears to be cutting through the pocketbook concerns as the deciding factor.

Trump's Approval Takes a Hit — Even Among His Own Voters

Overall, eight of the twelve undecided voters said they disapprove of Trump's job performance during his second term — notably, a majority of those disapprovers had themselves voted for him in 2024. Asked directly whether the economy will be a major factor in their vote this November, all but one of the twelve said yes.

A Mixed Picture: Undecided on Senate, Decided on Governor

While all twelve participants remained genuinely undecided in their state's Senate race, several had already settled on their choice for governor. Four of the five Iowa panelists said they would support Democrat Rob Sand, while in Georgia, three of the participants said they would back Republican Rick Jackson — suggesting these voters are making more differentiated, race-by-race judgments rather than voting along a single straight-ticket logic, even as economic anxiety colors their thinking broadly.

Fitting a Broader National Pattern

The Iowa and Georgia findings echo similar research from other recent elections. Separate post-election focus groups conducted for Democrats, examining Trump or third-party 2024 voters who flipped to Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia's gubernatorial races last year, found that economic concerns were similarly top of mind for those swing voters — with Rep. Mikie Sherrill and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger both making cost-of-living the centerpiece of their winning campaign messaging. Together, the pattern suggests affordability and inflation concerns are proving to be a consistent, cross-cutting force shaping recent electoral outcomes, regardless of region or race type.

Why This Matters for November

With focus groups offering a deeper, more textured read on voter sentiment than standard polling — even if drawn from a small sample of twelve people — the Iowa and Georgia sessions add qualitative weight to broader polling data that has similarly shown widespread public concern about the economy and Trump's handling of it. Both states are expected to be pivotal battlegrounds in determining which party controls the Senate after November's midterms. For continuing coverage, see the full NBC News report.

With less than three months remaining before Election Day, these focus groups suggest that however the national conversation shifts around foreign policy or other headline issues, the deciding factor for a critical bloc of undecided voters in Iowa and Georgia may come down to something far more personal: the price of groceries and gas.