Affordability is more than a political buzzword for many Georgia voters

by Ross Williams, Maya Homan, and Alander Rocha, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

May 18, 2026

Everything is more expensive these days, and Georgia voters across the state say the cost of living is shaping how they vote.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, grocery prices in April had climbed 2.9% since the same time last year. A pound of ground beef that would have cost you $6 a year ago would set you back $6.92 today, and that same pound of chuck would only cost $4.34 in April 2020.

Overall, the Consumer Price Index, a measure for the cost of consumer goods, has increased nearly 30% since April 2020.

The cost crunch has been compounded in recent months by a spike in fuel costs. The average Georgia motorist today is paying $60.24 to fill up their 15-gallon gas tank with regular gas, up from $43.98 this time last year, according to data from the American Automobile Association. And higher gas prices means higher prices for all other goods.

Voters feeling the squeeze

Gwinnett County resident Hunter Harsh, a recent college graduate, said that he hasn’t been able to buy a car after having to dip into his savings to afford housing and food.

“I’m starting my first job next week, and I won’t have a car to go there. So I’m going to have to ride a bike to work every day, as I can save up money,” Harsh said. “Thankfully, it’s not too far so for my situation kind of works out, but like a lot of people, if I ended up having to work somewhere further away, I would be in a tough situation.”

Voters like Harsh have been casting ballots during early voting ahead of the May 19 primary election, where Democratic and Republican nominees are selected to face off in November. At stake will be positions ranging from one of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats and governorship down to every seat in the state House of Representatives and local offices.

Many indicated that for them, “affordability” was more than a buzzword. Voters reported having to readjust their shopping habits to either only buying essentials or opting for less healthy foods, as well as having to pick between necessities.

“You have to check on your medicine, you have to say, ‘well I can get this, or I can get gas.’ You have to eliminate places you can go because you don’t have the money to fuel up. You can’t really buy the stuff you really want. The healthy foods you want cost so much more now, so you really have to demand it on just the cheap foods to survive,” said Rockdale County resident Debbie Mitchell.

Other voters indicated they’re cutting back on groceries as well as on non-essentials, like going out to eat in restaurants and traveling.

“As far as going out to the movies, eating out, that’s not an option because that’s just too expensive right about now,” said another Rockdale County voter, Raquel McDaniel.

For many, frustration over high prices is showing up at the ballot box. A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found economic concerns among the top issues voters say Georgia is facing today. The poll found 31% of Democratic primary voters listed inflation and cost of living as their top issue, with 17% of Republican primary voters agreeing.

“Everything has tripled in prices,” said Michelle Hayes, a resident of Stephens County in northeast Georgia who cast her ballot in Toccoa. “They may say they’re doing it for the long run, but people got to survive through it to get to that point, and it’s not feasible. So I do not vote the way that I did a couple of years ago.”

Hayes described herself as a “very strong” Republican voter, but she said she drew a Democratic ballot for the first time in this month’s primary election largely because of the cost of living, but also after seeing images of violent immigration raids.

“People are getting kicked out and beat on and jerked out of their cars, and the violence is just chaotic, and I don’t agree with all the violence I’m seeing and the way people are being treated,” she said.

Yvonne Chrimes, a 75-year-old retired university administrator who lives in Fulton County, said she’s doing all right financially, but worries about having to make repairs on her house with tariffs driving up the cost of lumber and other supplies.

“I’ve got some savings, but in the long run, I worry more about what would happen if our country continues on the path that’s going on under the current administration,” she said. She said she also worries about the cost of healthcare for those with less financial security than she has.

Though she used to vote for candidates of both parties, “in the last couple of years, there’s no way I’m going to vote for a Republican,” she said. “The current administration lost my vote several years ago.”

Georgia’s economic pain is not evenly distributed, said Sherrell Byrd, founder and executive director of SOWEGA Rising, a nonprofit aimed at revitalizing southwest Georgia.

“We’re already in a community that’s economically depressed,” she said. “We’re in a community that’s already two or three times higher than the national average when it comes to poverty rates. We don’t have a lot of jobs here that pay living in wages and we’ve had a lot of major corporations and manufacturers that have left the area, so people are already feeling the weight of not having enough money to pay their bills, but it’s even more compounded now that gas is higher, food costs and groceries are higher, rents are increasing.”

Byrd said there’s a vicious cycle where people leave the area in search of jobs, decreasing tax revenue and pressuring municipalities to institute new taxes to help pay for services like police and fire protection. Byrd said a Dougherty County ballot initiative for a Floating Local Option Sales Tax, or FLOST, a 1% sales tax to take pressure off local property taxes, is likely to draw more voters to the polls this month.

Byrd said when SOWEGA activists approach voters about the FLOST, they often hear people’s opinions about prices and the federal government.

“People are very aware of what is happening with this current administration,” she said. “I know that there’s a lot of correlation that we’re hearing from voters between the current war and how that’s impacting the price of gas, and things like tariffs. We’re hearing voters talk about these things at the doors and how that’s having a trickle down effect to all of the reasons why everything else is so expensive right now and so unaffordable.”

Some loyal Republicans urge patience

Many Georgia voters placed the blame for high prices on Republicans in power, and specifically on President Donald Trump, citing the war in Iran and the tariff policy favored by the president.

But Republican voters interviewed during early voting predicted the current pain at the pump would ultimately be just a blip.

Hugh Holley, a 79-year-old retiree, said he is trusting the plan, even as he is cutting back on luxuries.

Holley, who cast his ballot in Alpharetta for Derek Dooley in the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate race and Chris Carr for governor, said he’s concerned about rising costs, but he sees the spike in oil prices as a necessary step in order to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.

“To me, it’s a short term thing we have to live with,” he said.

Holley and his wife have been choosing to save money by cutting back on travel and splitting an entree at restaurants rather than ordering two dishes.

“We haven’t given it up,” he said. “But in our case we split meals, so you reduce the total cost of the eating out by doing that.”

Lauren Shera, a retired radiologic technologist from Martin, a small town in northeast Georgia, voted in the Republican primary and cast her ballot for Mike Collins in the U.S. Senate race and Rick Jackson for governor earlier this month.

For her, the most important issues were combating child trafficking, securing the U.S.-Mexico border and promoting oil independence. The cost of living was further down her list of concerns.

“It’s a factor, but I’m a wait-and-see sort of person,” she said. “As soon as all this crap is over in Iran, I think we’re going to level out and it’s going to be better than what it was before. Now that everybody’s griping about the gas prices going up, well, I’ll take a little bit higher gas prices for a couple more months opposed to Iran nuking us, you know what I’m saying? I like my safety more than paying a couple bucks extra for gas for right now.”

Roger Goodwin, a retiree from Homer, which is about 75 miles northeast of Atlanta, voted for Derek Dooley and Jackson. He said he’s as perturbed at the pump as anyone.

“I’m on Social Security, so I’m on a fixed income,” he said. “I don’t like paying $4 and some odd cents for gas. I won’t say it’s a total hindrance, but it’s definitely a concern and it makes things a little bit tighter.”

But Goodwin said he’s also confident in the economy long-term.

“I think what we’re seeing now is a result of when the strait (of Hormuz) was completely closed, and this is kind of the after effect, and I’m suspecting that prices for gas, for example, will come down,” he said.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.