Typically the managers of household budgets, women make the vast majority of consumer purchases across the country, putting them face-to-face with the high cost of living that became a driving force behind the blue tsunami that swept the nation Tuesday. Early data shows women swung hard for Democrats this election compared to 2024. In The 19th/YouGov poll from September, more women than men consistently said they were very worried about the cost of healthcare, housing, groceries and utilities.
To handle those cost-of-living issues, including childcare, women were also more likely than men to say they trusted Democrats. Now, Democrats have gained control of both the House and the Senate. That could give them a path to pass policy, but they’ll still have to contend with a presidential veto, and they are short of a two-thirds majority in the Senate to override it.
Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of Moms First, an organization pushing for affordable childcare and other family policies, said in a statement Wednesday that voters will still be expecting change. Popular issues don’t pass themselves. They pass when lawmakers feel the heat, and moms are done waiting patiently for change,” she said.
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat from New York who is in line to take over as Speaker of the House, said the party now has “a responsibility to govern on affordability.” New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, told CNN on Wednesday that could look like Congress moving to end the war in Iran, which has caused gas prices to rise, making everything from school supplies to groceries to Halloween candy more expensive to produce and ship. It could also mean working to curtail tariffs that are also contributing to the rising cost of goods and undoing the cuts to Medicaid funding that have impacted healthcare coverage and cut 4 million Americans from the Supplemental Food Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
Chuck Schumer indicated Congress could use the “power of the purse” to deter the war. There’s also the War Powers Resolution, which calls for an end to military action within 60 days unless Congress declares war, a milestone reached back in May. Neither the Republican-controlled House nor Senate has successfully passed a legally binding joint resolution to halt or continue military action.
With a Democratic majority, that “should be the first thing on the docket,” along with a proposal to revoke Trump’s tariff policies, said Elizabeth Pancotti, the vice president of policy, advocacy and research at Groundwork Action, the advocacy arm of the left-leaning think tank Groundwork Collaborative. Bernie Sanders on economic policy and researched economic policy at several think tanks. The president still has veto power if either of those pass, but the optics have changed significantly.
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