(John Ransom, Headline USA) Exit interviews conducted by CNN in Ohio show that inflation and the economy are top concerns Ohio voters, both Republican and Democrat, as they voted in midterm primaries.
“People say the president doesn’t control gas prices with a magic lever, but you can trace back to the executive order to shut down that pipeline,” Peter Slavey, 26, a machinist in Dayton, told CNN.
Slavey, who said he voted for Trump-backed JD Vance, noted that many of the Biden administration’s failed policies, such as ending the Keystone XL pipeline, seemed to be motivated more by optics that played well to Democrats’ radical base than a careful, comprehensive analysis.
“It does have an effect, and I think it’s more of just a shutdown for image rather than looking at the actual effects of things,” he said.
As early primary races begin to heat up, these exit interviews come as bad news, but not unexpected, for President Joe Biden and the Democrats, who are facing tough election prospects in the 2022 midterms in November.
A recent survey by ABC News/the Washington Post said that 68% “of respondents to poll said they don’t like how Biden is handling inflation,” said the Daily Mail.
Moreover, 55% of voters said that they would prefer Republicans to handle inflation versus 31% who said they prefer Democrats to handle inflation, said the ABC News survey.
Republicans bested the Democrats in the top three categories on the minds of voters: preventing crime, inflation and the economy.
“I don’t understand where the [Democrat] party is at now. I mean, the party has moved too far,” Bob Eggers, 65, a commercial buyer from Columbus, told CNN.
Eggers said he had voted in the past for Democrats, including for Bill Clinton.
Others echoed the comments that the Democrats had strayed too far to the left, “so much to the point that it just, it doesn’t even feel like America anymore,” Terrill said. “It’s very scary to me.”
She said Biden’s pledge to consider only black women for the recent Supreme Court vacancy also felt wrong.
“Why does that have to be the criteria? Couldn’t it just be the most qualified person, whatever race they are, whatever gender they are?” Terrill said.
