As U.S. voters prepare to choose a new Congress Tuesday, Nov. 3, a late-October poll found economic pressure narrowly outranked democracy as their top concern.
NPR/PBS News/Marist surveyed 1,289 registered voters by phone, text and online on Oct. 19-20. Among likely voters, 34% identified cost of living as their leading concern, compared with 33% who chose preserving democracy. The poll's margin of error for likely voters was 3.8 percentage points.
The election will decide control of Congress for the next two years. All 435 House seats and about one-third of the Senate are on the ballot Nov. 3, giving voters a say over both chambers.
On a separate national question about which party's congressional candidate likely voters favored in their district, Democratic candidates led Republicans 52% to 44%. That measures stated preference at the time of the survey; it does not project seat totals.
Overall, 77% of likely voters said they were confident or very confident that their state or local government would conduct fair and accurate elections in November. Another 21% were not very confident or not confident at all. Confidence was reported by 88% of Democrats, 75% of independents and 68% of Republicans. Asked how their preferred candidate should respond if declared the loser, 81% said the candidate should accept the outcome, while 16% favored a challenge.
The poll also asked about personal finances over the prior year: 38% said their finances had worsened, 44% said they were about the same and 15% said they had improved.
Separately, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that consumer prices rose 3.7% over the 12 months through September 2026, before seasonal adjustment, and 0.6% from August to September on a seasonally adjusted basis. Gasoline prices rose 34.2% over the year before seasonal adjustment and 9.1% in September on a seasonally adjusted basis. The BLS scheduled its October CPI report for Nov. 10 at 8:30 a.m. ET.
