High household costs remain a central issue in the final week before the Nov. 3 midterms, according to a Stateline report on an Urban Institute tracker, a CNBC voter survey and an Associated Press account of prices as a campaign pressure^1,2,3.

Stateline said the Urban Institute estimated 49 percent of families cannot cover the think tank’s measure of basic economic security, even if they are paying bills¹. Gregory Acs, an Urban Institute fellow, told Stateline the finding does not mean those households are poor, but that they are not secure¹.

Stateline reported gasoline prices have risen 33 percent since January 2025, about $1.02 a gallon on average, and that Affordable Care Act benchmark premiums are up 22 percent from a year earlier¹. Average childcare costs for two young children have risen $6,600 over the past decade, it said¹.

CNBC’s final All-America Economic Survey before the election found 36 percent of 1,000 registered voters named government corruption among the most important issues, just ahead of food and groceries at 34 percent². Gasoline prices and protecting democracy were each named by 23 percent². CNBC noted the question listed several cost items separately². The poll of registered voters ran Oct. 14-18 with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points².

Stateline said Vice President JD Vance told a CBS News town hall in Michigan that officials were working on gas prices, while Trump has called affordability a hoax and blamed former President Joe Biden¹. The BBC reported Trump told a Georgia crowd pump prices were temporarily high and would come down, and that the country was in a golden age⁴.

Former President Barack Obama, campaigning for Democrats, said prices are higher now than before Trump returned to office, the BBC reported⁴. A Small Business for America’s Future survey cited by Stateline found nearly two-thirds of 1,171 owners had cut or skipped their own pay¹. How voters weigh prices against other issues on Nov. 3 is not yet known.