The candidate who authentically addresses affordability in 2028 will be the next president
The 2026 midterms are right around the corner, setting the stage for a presidential showdown in 2028 that may make or break the veracity and fire of the America First movement
Opinion-editorial by Summer Lane | December 8, 2025
The 2026 midterm season is just around the corner, but speculation is already heating up about who will take on the mantle of leadership in the Oval Office after President Trump’s second term is over – and the stakes have never been higher.
President Trump’s legacy – whatever it may look like at the conclusion of his term – will greatly affect the political temperature of the country. It will also primarily impact the viability of the next Republican nominee in 2028 and determine whether such a figure will be able to win against whatever Democrat candidate is propped up by the establishment.
Whether the America First movement continues or dies will be determined in the next election; therefore, it’s only natural that the nation is already speculating on who the next president could be.
But no assessment of these possibilities would be complete without looking at the driving issues in this country now that President Donald Trump has been in office for nearly a full year.
The trajectory of the 2026 midterms is likely a foreshadowing of what the presidential election year will look like, and so it is essential that any possible candidate understands the core issues most Americans care about if they want to win their races.
Affordability leads everything
Affordability and the cost of living are the biggest issues plaguing Americans today. Joe Biden plunged the nation into a hyperinflation nightmare, and the country is still recovering from it.
President Trump is clearly working hard to bring prices down, but young Americans are still concerned, nevertheless. According to the newest data from the Yale Youth Poll, the cost of living and affordability is the number one issue for voters under 34 (by 91 percent), and also for all other demographics (88 percent).
Other leading issues with younger voters include housing (70 percent) and jobs (67 percent), along with 64 percent who are worried about healthcare and the costs associated with it.
The candidate who can authentically speak to the pain of everyday living and the costs that are killing the American dream will be the candidate who reigns supreme in 2028.
Electability through a lens
Republicans as well as Democrats are concerned about the high cost of living, and while their proposed solutions to these issues may differ, they do share a common concern: what does the future look like for their families?
In Yale’s poll, Republican voters across all groups perceived Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) to have the most electability in a hypothetical 2028 presidential election. However, younger Republican voters favored Vice President J.D. Vance as the potential nominee – a figure generally seen as the heir apparent to the Trump White House.
For Democrats, Governor Gavin Newsom of California was seen as the most likely and electable candidate headed into 2028, signaling his growing popularity with a disenchanted younger America that has been priced out of owning a home or starting a family.
This will be a difficult mountain for any Republican candidate to climb – not that it’s impossible, by any means. But young voters, thanks to the work of key players like Charlie Kirk with Turning Point USA, swung heavily for President Trump in 2024. Those same voters (18-22) are dissatisfied with the current administration by a large swath (47 percent strongly disapprove, and 8 percent somewhat disapprove). Voters between the ages of 23-29 and 30-34 have also soured a bit on the America First agenda amid a sky-high housing market and still-pricey groceries:
However, in the political world, the landscape changes almost daily. If Vice President J.D. Vance wants to clinch the Republican nomination and then win the presidency in 2028 – assuming that he does, indeed, run – he will need to distinguish himself as a champion of the blue-collar working man and woman of America who is struggling to make house payments and buy groceries.
The Trump administration has broadly stalled rising prices and managed to bring down the average price of fuel. The price of Thanksgiving food, this year, also took a marked dive, which was good news for the American consumer.
This is clearly a step in the right direction. If prices start to drop and the housing market becomes accessible again to young Americans, Republicans will have a better chance of winning the midterms and setting the next presidential nominee on a path toward success.
President Trump this week noted that his administration was working to bring Biden-era prices back down, calling the media’s perpetual narrative about it a “con job.”
He’s right – the media unfairly misrepresents his administration’s work on the economy, but the average American may not realize that. Most Americans are simply feeling the sting of high prices and an impossible housing market, and getting angry about it.
Vice President Vance will have to bring a legacy of success on this issue into 2028 if he is going to be the next president. He will have to speak directly to the majority of Americans who feel that this country needs a “major change and a shock to the system” to turn things around, according to Yale’s poll.
To this end, affordability and the cost of living will truly win someone – Republican or Democrat – the next presidency.
Photo: Adobe Stock
