As the U.S. midterm elections approach, the rising cost of living and inflation are becoming one of the most pressing issues for Latino voters. The latest poll by CNN shows that 70% of respondents disapprove of President Trump's handling of the economy, over 70% disapprove of his approach to inflation and oil prices; and 77% believe that the president's policies have led to rising prices. Outside a Latino supermarket in New York, 60-year-old Esmeralda Roustand, a Dominican family health assistant, said that she spent nearly $20 (about 25.6 Singapore dollars) on two bottles of orange juice and a chicken lunch with green onions. She said that food, rent, and transportation costs are continuously rising, and with the pressure of maintaining her life in the U.S. and regularly sending money to her family in the Dominican Republic, the burden is increasingly heavy. Roustand's situation is not unique. Although some U.S. economic indicators still show resilience, many Latino families are feeling the pressure in the form of lighter shopping bags, rising rents, and canceled outings and family activities. Michael Negrón, a senior researcher at the Center for American Progress and former White House economic advisor, pointed out that inflation has a greater impact on the Latino community because a higher proportion of these families' income is spent on basic expenses such as food, energy, and transportation. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that nearly 15% of the budget of Hispanic families is spent on food, and about 8% on energy, both higher than the national average. José Rosario, who has worked at a meat shop and grocery store in Manhattan for seven years, said that customer spending habits have changed noticeably. A hundred dollars could fill a shopping cart in the past, but now it only buys two small bags of items; a year ago, papayas cost 99 cents per pound, now they are $1.99, and some customers even ask for items to be cut and sold in smaller quantities. Negrón believes that economic dissatisfaction could become an important variable in the midterm elections. Many Latino voters who once supported Trump did so in the hope that he would lower the cost of living; however, policies such as tariffs, mass deportations, and the Iran war are believed to have exacerbated the family's concerns about rising prices. For ordinary consumers like Roustand, political debates are far less direct than the pressure of weekly shopping. She said, "I feel that the economy is getting worse every day, but you still have to keep buying things because people need to eat."
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