
Democrats put affordability at center of final campaign push
Clip: 10/27/2026 | 5m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
Democrats put economy and affordability at center of final campaign push
With one week until Election Day, the final push is on. President Trump is making a swing through Texas, a state Republicans have long counted on, but where Democrats see an opportunity to make gains. With voters pointing to the cost of everyday necessities, the economy is looming large in the final week of the campaign. Lisa Desjardins reports.
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Democrats put affordability at center of final campaign push
Clip: 10/27/2026 | 5m 27sVideo has Closed Captions
With one week until Election Day, the final push is on. President Trump is making a swing through Texas, a state Republicans have long counted on, but where Democrats see an opportunity to make gains. With voters pointing to the cost of everyday necessities, the economy is looming large in the final week of the campaign. Lisa Desjardins reports.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipAMNA NAWAZ: Just one week until Election Day here in the U.S., and tens of millions of Americans have already cast their ballots.
Now the final push is on.
President Trump is on the campaign trail today, making a swing through Texas, a state Republicans have long counted on, but where Democrats see an opportunity to make gains.
GEOFF BENNETT: And with voters pointing to the cost of everyday necessities, the economy is looming large in the final week of the campaign.
Here's our Lisa Desjardins.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Seven days from now, the people of Texas are going to defeat Democrat communist James Talafreako.
LISA DESJARDINS: In the Lone Star State, national attention, with President Donald Trump today making his fourth trip there this campaign season.
DONALD TRUMP: You see, it'll happen very quickly.
You will -- it'll be like a blink.
Gasoline and diesel prices will soon come down.
They will come plummeting down for the consumer.
DONALD TRUMP: The only man standing between Texas and this raging lunatic is a man named President Donald J. Trump, thank you.
And I need the help of Ken Paxton in the U.S.
Senate.
LISA DESJARDINS: The president hopes to give state Attorney General Ken Paxton a last-minute boost in a tight race against Democrat James Talarico.
STATE REP.
JAMES TALARICO (D-TX), Senatorial Candidate: El Paso, it is so good to see you!
LISA DESJARDINS: Talarico made his own appeal to voters last night, seeking to turn concerns about the economy and cost of living into support at the ballot box.
STATE REP.
JAMES TALARICO: But corrupt political deals have gutted our health care and sent premiums skyrocketing, all to give tax cuts to billionaires.
We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis.
But we can end that in this election in this state in this race.
LISA DESJARDINS: Those concerns echoed by some Texans.
SUSAN CAMPOS, Texas Voter: We need to take our government back and we need candidates who support people, not just the top 1 percent, but all of us who struggle every day to pay for gas, to pay for groceries, to pay for basic needs.
LISA DESJARDINS: Gas prices are related to President Trump's war in Iran.
But some voters see things differently, like this one in Mississippi.
LEIGH HOUSE, Mississippi Voter: You know, I can pay a little bit higher gas prices so that my grandchildren can grow up and continue to grow up in a free world.
LISA DESJARDINS: Or this voter in California.
BLAKE MARNELL, California Voter: The main issue still for me and for the country is illegal immigration.
There are a lot of domestic issues, but, for instance, let's take the cost of housing, which is higher than some people would like it.
If there were millions fewer people in our country, the cost of housing would go down.
LISA DESJARDINS: But Democrats are running on the issue everywhere.
Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton: AMY ACTON (D), Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate: Hope is what drives this campaign.
(CHEERING) AMY ACTON: Because, when we're in this together, we can make life better for Ohioans, and that's why we're fighting to make this state affordable again.
REP.
MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): Well, good morning, everybody.
LISA DESJARDINS: What's Republicans' answer?
In New York's 17th Congressional District, vulnerable incumbent Mike Lawler today said it's less government and more bipartisanship.
REP.
MIKE LAWLER: Well, we live in New York.
It's the highest-tax state in the country.
We have the worst business climate.
We lead the nation in out-migration.
We have the most incompetent governor running our state.
And I have stood up to both parties to deliver for my constituents.
LISA DESJARDINS: But, still, some voters in his district question the party in power.
PRIMROSE D. SULLIVAN, New York Voter: I do think that we have issues that are actually making our -- like, our property values are out of control.
So I feel like those issues make me feel like perhaps we might try another option.
LISA DESJARDINS: Meantime, in swing state Michigan, the vice president wants voters to choose the GOP option.
J.D.
VANCE, Vice President of the United States: At its heart, our movement is about returning control of the United States of America to you, which is exactly where it belongs.
(CHEERING) LISA DESJARDINS: Campaigning there today for Republicans up and down the ballot.
J.D.
VANCE: We have got to keep building, ladies and gentlemen, and we need good fighters to make it happen.
LISA DESJARDINS: The tight Michigan Senate race between former Congressman and Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is one of a half-dozen likely to decide control of the U.S.
Senate.
El-Sayed is Muslim American, born to Egyptian immigrants in the U.S.
At a Grand Rapids event for Rogers last night, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
spoke bluntly and falsely about Arabs.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., U.S.
Health and Human Services Secretary: There's 500 million Arabs in the world.
And yet they don't produce science.
They don't win the Nobel Prize.
They don't win the Field Prize.
They don't win the Wolf Prize.
They don't produce literature.
Oh, and all of that tradition has been destroyed by the Muslim Brotherhood.
They have created stagnant societies that do one, two things hatred and war and victimization.
DONALD TRUMP: You can defeat the Dumocrat communists and vote for more money in your pockets, bigger paychecks for your families, lower taxes.
LISA DESJARDINS: But for the president today, it is all about Texas.
DONALD TRUMP: You must vote Republican.
You must vote for Paxton.
LISA DESJARDINS: A national race with just a few days left.
For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Lisa Desjardins.
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