Democrats won on affordability. Whether they can deliver it is a different story.

Democrats won historic electoral victories on a pledge to make life more affordable, an issue that united voters across political and demographic divides.

Democrats won historic electoral victories Tuesday night on a pledge to make life more affordable for Americans, an issue that united voters across political and demographic divides. Now comes the hard part. An overwhelming majority of midterm voters had a negative view of the economy, with more than 80% saying they were worried about the price of necessities like gas, groceries and healthcare, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. In a reversal from 2024, voters this year said they trusted Democrats on the economy more than they trusted Republicans. The stunning electoral results on Tuesday night were the culmination of a monthslong effort by Democrats to make the high cost of living a central campaign issue in races across the country up and down the ballot.

From Kansas to South Carolina to Maine, Democratic candidates uniformly seized on and stuck to the topic of inflation, while Republicans sought to redirect voters’ attention to fears of socialism and crime, often laced with Islamophobia. In the hours after NBC News projected they would capture full control of Congress on Tuesday night, Democrats continued to hammer their affordability message. “We are laser-focused on addressing the affordability crisis that has been crushing everyday Americans,” House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said Wednesday morning on NBC’s “TODAY” show. But tackling affordability in Congress