NPR interviews published Tuesday showed two Georgia voters who backed President Donald Trump in 2024 reporting opposing votes in Senate and governor races, while three of four Pennsylvania participants planned to support Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Gerald told NPR he gave Trump an A+++ and voted for Republican Mike Collins in the Senate race and Rick Jackson for governor. He told the outlet, “Red all the way down the ballot.” Wally, who also backed Trump in 2024, gave him an F, named inflation as his top concern and said he voted for Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms for governor. Fulton County’s consolidated sample ballot lists those candidate matchups; NPR reported the voters’ accounts.
In an Oct. 8–12 survey of 1,119 U.S. adults, the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 79% of registered voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of living costs. The poll also found that 64% considered the war with Iran one of the most important issues in their vote.
Consumer prices rose 3.7% over the 12 months ending in September 2026, before seasonal adjustment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Its seasonally adjusted gasoline index climbed 9.1% from August to September.
In Pennsylvania, three of four people in NPR’s group planned to support Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, while three had voted for Trump in 2024. Stephen said he planned to back Shapiro for governor but favored Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick for the House. NPR described these choices as plans, rather than votes already cast.
NPR said its 11-person Swing Shift group included people who had voted for Trump at least once in the past decade; two said they were happy with his second term. EconoTimes previously covered NPR’s swing-state focus-group reporting. The interviews are not a representative survey and cannot establish how many voters nationwide will split their tickets.
Pew Research Center’s Sept. 28–Oct. 4 survey found that 77% of validated 2024 Trump voters preferred a Republican House candidate, 5% a Democratic candidate, 5% another candidate and 13% were unsure. The Nov. 3 election includes all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats. The Bureau of Labor Statistics scheduled its October consumer price index release for Nov. 10 at 8:30 a.m. ET.
