Eight charts that explain why "affordability" is suddenly everywhere

All politics is affordability now

Everyone is suddenly talking about “affordability.” That includes Zohran Mamdani, Donald Trump, and seemingly the entire Democratic party messaging apparatus — even GOP Senators are writing strategy op-eds now.

Last week, a reporter from The New York Times called me and asked two questions about the topic. First, what do we know, if anything, about what “affordability” means to everyday voters? Does polling data offer any insights? And second, where did the word come from? Why is it all of a sudden the dominant messaging strategy for both Democrats and Republicans?

On the “what” question, I would direct readers (and did direct this reporter) to the second graph in this article. In my raw survey data from our Strength In Numbers/Verasight polls, when people use the words “affordable” or “affordability,” they also tend to express concerns about high prices and (loosely speaking) low social mobility. High prices is not just about goods and services, but many things associated with economic (im)mobility and uncertainty about future prosperity in general. People mention groceries and rent, sure, but also health care, education, houses — and, yes, taxes. People also say affordability is about fairness and economic inequality (one respondent to a recent poll said things would be more affordable if we taxed billionaires at a higher rate). See also: this series by Paul Krugman on the subject.

But what about the why and the when? To add some data to the discourse, I’ve parsed an archive of hundreds of thousands of emails sent by members of Congress and produced a comprehensive timeline of the recent usage of the word “affordability.”

My analysis of this data reveals three things. First, Democrats really started talking about affordability after Zohran Mamdani’s victory in the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City in June 2025. There’s a good case to be made that the party’s subsequent blowouts in the 2025 statewide elections are due to lessons they learned from Mamdani’s campaign.

Second, data show Republicans are now playing a game of catch-up on affordability. This is best embodied by Donald Trump’s recent tweets on the subject, as well as his praise for Mamdani in the Oval Office two weeks ago. (I think Trump rightly perceives a threat from Democrats on economic anxiety.)

Third and finally, I explain how “affordability” has become the new “inflation” — a handy buzzword that captures a general economic malaise that is much broader than the narrow concept meant by the single word. As we’ll see, compared to inflation, affordability has the advantage of actually referencing the thing people are worried about.

The code for this analysis is linked at the bottom of the article.

---

I’ve done a lot of original data analysis and visualization for this article. I have paywalled it to deliver value to premium subscribers to Strength In Numbers. Paying members of the newsletter make it possible for me to spend time on original work like this, and get a host of other benefits and content. If you would like to subscribe, click the button below (or this link).