Bernard Reynolds · November 1, 2026
When you read enough polls, you start to notice they rarely agree. So I got curious when polls from different pollsters, with different sponsors, kept telling me the same things about what's on Georgians' minds going into Tuesday.
I read national surveys from AP-NORC, KFF and Ipsos, Sunday's New York Times reporting, and Georgia polling. Four themes showed up again and again.
This is the loudest one. In AP-NORC's October poll, more than eight in ten voters named the economy and the cost of living as top issues. Ipsos found almost half of registered voters calling cost of living their most important issue, and about three in four said their own cost of living is heading the wrong way. The Times, citing its Times/Siena poll, says a little over half of likely voters rate the economy as poor.
The government's own numbers fit the mood. September inflation was 3.7 percent, up from 3.4 percent in August, and gasoline was up about a third from a year ago.
Health care is the quiet second. About seven in ten voters in the AP-NORC poll called it a top issue. KFF found six in ten worried about affording care, and put health care costs in a tie with gas prices as voters' top midterm concern. In Georgia, a University of Georgia poll found about six in ten likely voters saying health care isn't affordable, and more than a third had skipped or delayed care because of the price.
Gas, heating, electricity. In Georgia, add data centers. Polls from AARP, Emerson College and Sachs Media all found worry about them, mostly over electric bills, and Sachs Media found concern across party lines.
AP-NORC found about eight in ten voters say the country needs substantial change or complete upheaval, and about two-thirds feel pessimistic about politics. Ipsos found about six in ten don't think their family has a good chance of improving its standard of living.
The themes are shared. The order isn't. AP-NORC and the Georgia AARP poll found Republicans more likely to name immigration, crime and taxes, and Democrats more likely to name health care and threats to democracy.
Motivation differs too. KFF's September poll found 63 percent of Democratic voters say they're more motivated than usual to vote, against 38 percent of Republican voters. Most of the rest of Republicans said they're about as motivated as always.
The parties also tell different stories about why prices are high. The Times reports Democrats have spent nearly half a billion dollars on ads about prices and the economy, while Republicans point to strong markets and growth. A conservative economist the Times quoted, Steve Moore, put the voter's view this way: "The problem is that the one metric people use to judge the economy is gas prices."
As of 8:34 a.m. ET Saturday, the Secretary of State counts about 2.82 million accepted early ballots, about 13 percent more than 2022's whole early vote. The AJC reports voters 50 and older are nearly two-thirds of them. A July poll for AARP by a Republican and a Democratic firm found 88 percent of Georgia voters 50 and older rated their motivation a 10 out of 10, against 62 percent of voters under 50.
The General Assembly convenes January 11, 2027. Costs, health care and energy bills are the questions legislators will be asked first. If you've got an issue coming and nobody carrying it, the best time to start that conversation is before the session opens.
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Bernard Reynolds is the principal of True North Strategies, a Georgia public affairs firm.
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