The Scoop
They felt “overwhelmed” by bad news and grocery bills. They weren’t sure who “you can trust these days.” And they couldn’t name a politician that might fix it.
By convening a focus group of seven swing state voters, all mothers between 27 and 48 years old, the Democratic firm Navigator Research found angst about the country’s direction and little faith in either party’s ability to fix its problems.
“It’s just very overwhelming to me trying to figure out what direction we’re actually going in,” said a 40-year-old mother of three from Georgia, who’d voted for neither President Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris in 2024.
“I feel like things are going to get worse before they get better,” said a 38-year-old mother in Wisconsin who’d supported Trump. “It’s going to take a lot to break down those evil walls that were built up and all the evil behind everything so that things can be better eventually.”
Navigator Research regularly gathers groups of representative Americans to check in with voters who aren’t overly engaged with politics. Last week’s session, which was viewed by Semafor, focused on women who felt it had become too expensive to comfortably support a family in the US.
“The gas prices are going up right when taxes hit,” said a 27-year-old mother from Arizona.
But the voters surveyed didn’t seem to see either party as the solution. Even those who had voted for Harris couldn’t name a Democrat who spoke to their needs.
“They don’t see any improvement in what’s happening in the economy,” said Margie Omero, a principal at GBAO Strategies who proctored the focus group. “They don’t see anything from the Trump administration that’s helping them. These are folks who are looking for it, and they’re not feeling it. They’re feeling that things are getting worse.”
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“I am not a fan of politicians,” said a 34-year-old mother from Michigan, who said she was only aware of some national Democrats because “social media has really blown them up.”
The participants indicated they largely turn to social media, rather than traditional media, for news about the country. The news wasn’t good. The women were vaguely aware of Attorney General Pam Bondi, but some thought she had resigned her office in a scandal. They were more closely following the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and concerned about unsafe products being peddled by the government.
“Our country allows all these dyes and chemicals in the stuff that they sell us and feed us that a lot of countries don’t allow,” said a 37-year-old mother from Michigan; the Wisconsin mother worried about population control.
Asked what news sources she relied on, the Michigan mother said traditional news had “turned into the shows my grandma used to watch” — soap operas with forced narratives. Two women who had voted for Harris said that they got news and analysis from right-wing personality Candace Owens; one of them even said that she’d like to see Owens, who is known for spreading conspiracy theories, run for president. “She does fact-check,” she explained. “She has a lot of resources.”
David’s view
The voters most keen to talk with political reporters are, typically, extremely engaged in politics. Most people will never attend a political rally in person, and most hang up when pollsters call. So it was useful and instructive to spend an evening listening to women who did vote, and had some worries about the country’s direction, but avoided most news. It underscored the challenge that Democrats and Republicans alike face reaching these voters. How do you convince voters who pay only fleeting attention to the news and who are uncertain and pessimistic about the future that your new legislation is responsible for something good? I have no clue.
Notable
- In the 19th, Grace Panetta studied the answers in another Navigator focus group, from young women worried about economic ups and downs.
- In his Slow Boring newsletter, Matthew Yglesias urges people who are unusually plugged in to politics to understand it sets them apart. “The most dangerous trap to fall into is a mistaken sense of one’s own in-touchness.”