Pocketbook concerns loom over US midterms

A couple of months ago, a friend asked whether I wanted to use a house cleaning service.

"My cleaner has lost quite a few clients lately and really needs new houses to fill the spots," she said. "If you know anyone who is looking for cleaners, please refer them."

Knowing that the woman worked independently and brought her sister along to help, I asked why she had suddenly lost so much work.

One household had ended the service after both elderly owners died; three others had canceled because of financial strain.

"Everything is getting more expensive. Losing clients right now is hard for her. I have been asking around trying to help her," my friend said. "She has two school-age kids."

Evidently, higher prices are changing the spending behavior of some American middle-class families, and in turn, reducing the incomes of the working class.

Money is also weighing heavily on voters. An October poll by the Pew Research Center found that 84 percent of registered voters considered the economy the No 1 factor in their midterm vote.

More than 53 percent also cited healthcare, immigration and foreign policy as important considerations. But all three, in different ways, come down to money.

Healthcare: I know people who lost their health insurance after changes to the Affordable Care Act this year. It's about money.

Immigration: I know someone whose family member was arrested and deported after leaving a grocery store in Houston. The family lost a wage earner. Again, it's about money.

Foreign policy: Experts have cited tariff policy and the Iran war as two factors driving up prices. Once again, it's about money.

I went to the polls on the second day of early voting. To my surprise, more than 30 people were already in line — a rare sight in my more than 20 years of voting. The only other time I remember seeing a meaningful line during early voting was in the 2016 presidential election.

Per Texas law, campaign signs and flyers are not allowed within 30 meters of the polling station. Colorful signs of all sizes were relegated to the parking lot and along the road.

The most closely watched contest in Texas is the Senate race between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton. Surprisingly, there were hardly any campaign signs for either candidate.

Paxton defeated longtime incumbent John Cornyn by 28 percentage points in the Republican primary. William Galston of the Brookings Institution wrote that "Paxton's decisive win signals that the Texas Republican Party has fully shifted to the MAGA base", referring to President Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan.

On Polymarket, a prediction market for election outcomes, Paxton's odds stood at just 32 percent as of Thursday. We shall see how good Americans are at betting on elections.

Near the polling station entrance, the only sign was a small one reading "Voting This Way" in English, Spanish, Chinese and Vietnamese.

In previous years, I had mostly seen older voters during early voting. This year, the crowd was more mixed in age.

Inside, there were about 30 voting machines. After my ID was checked, I cast my ballot as instructed.

Voting straight down the party line takes little time — probably less than five minutes. I'm never a one-party voter, so it took me much longer.

The name Bo French stood out when I saw it on the ballot. A former chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party, he is running for Texas Railroad Commissioner, a post that oversees the state's vital oil and gas industry, despite its name. The French family owns an oil company.

French made headlines over the past year for his anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric.

"Since 1965, we've allowed immigration from lots of places in the world whose culture and values do not align with America," French said in March.

"There are 100 million people in America who shouldn't be here," he posted on social media another time, calling for their deportation. That figure amounts to nearly one-third of the US population.

Days after I voted, videos of long lines at polling stations started to pop up on social media. Some lines had around 100 people by the look of it. I wonder how many voters would end up not voting because of the long waits.

The author is a China Daily correspondent based in Houston.

Contact the writer at mayzhou@chinadailyusa.com