It's not just gas and groceries. Childcare costs weigh on some voters
before the midterm elections
[October 21, 2026]
By MORIAH BALINGIT
Like so many Americans, Jenny Escolastico has watched wearily as the
cost of living has risen, straining her household budget. But as a
mother of two children under 5, she faces added pressure that could
shape how she votes in November: childcare costs.
Escolastico’s household outside Allentown, Pennsylvania, is relying
solely on her husband’s income. She’s staying home with her children, at
least in part because she simply can’t afford to work.
"What I would be spending on childcare would be more than what I would
be making if I were working full time,” said Escolastico, an Air Force
veteran who later worked in human resources. “Childcare is another rent,
another car note.” Even though her son now attends state-funded
prekindergarten, returning to work would still mean finding him
after-school care, plus full-time childcare for her daughter.
Those costs are top of mind as Escolastico, who voted for President
Donald Trump in 2024, weighs whether to vote Democratic next month.
She lives in Pennsylvania's hotly contested 7th Congressional District,
one of a handful that will determine which party controls Congress next
year. The midterm elections have been dominated by anxiety over rising
prices for gas, groceries and housing, a liability for Trump and his
Republican Party. For millions of parents of young children, childcare
is one of the largest strains on the family budget.
Both parties are talking about childcare
Childcare costs have rose faster than inflation from 2020 to 2024, with
the U.S. average for full-time childcare topping $13,000 in 2025,
according to Child Care Aware of America. About three-quarters of U.S.
adults saw the expense of childcare as a “major problem” in the U.S.,
and 64% supported the federal government providing free- or low-cost
childcare for children too young for public school, according to an AP-NORC
poll from June 2025.
In the 7th District north of Philadelphia, both candidates are making
childcare part of their pitch to voters. Like Escolastico, about 16% of
the district’s voters were undecided as of September, according to a
poll from Franklin and Marshall College.
Democratic nominee Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter, has campaigned on
establishing universal prekindergarten, expanding full-day kindergarten,
increasing funding for Head Start and making more working families
eligible for federal childcare assistance. He’s cited his own experience
pitching in on childcare for his two granddaughters.
“The cost of caring for the people you love keeps climbing, and nobody
in Washington seems to notice,” Brooks said in a news release.
The incumbent, freshman Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, himself a father
of two kids under age 3, has embraced more modest approaches that rely
on tax breaks to lower costs.
He cosponsored a bill to expand the federal tax credit for childcare
expenses. The proposal, ultimately folded into Trump's sweeping bill of
tax breaks and cuts to social programs, also increased tax incentives
for private employers who subsidize or provide childcare for their
workers.
"I will continue to work together with both sides to ensure that working
families get the resources, representation, and support that they
deserve," Mackenzie said in a statement.
Trump himself had campaigned on cutting childcare costs by using tariff
revenue, a plan that has yet to materialize. More recently, he expressed
skepticism of federal money for childcare.
“We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare,” Trump told an
Easter luncheon.
Childcare has become an increasingly urgent priority
The urgency over early childhood policy was accelerated by the pandemic.
Daycare closures and weekslong quarantines laid bare the necessity and
financial precarity of the childcare industry. To keep providers open,
the federal government spent more than $50 billion on the industry,
funding staff training, higher wages, protective gear and childcare
assistance for more families.
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Diana McGuire leads her 4-year-old son Noah by the hand across the
playground at St. Mary's Early Childhood Center in Indianapolis,
Ind., May 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Cara Penquite, File)
In 2021, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, proposed offering
subsidies to most American families so they would never pay more
than 7% of their household income on childcare. It was narrowly
defeated in Congress.
Three years later, the last of the pandemic aid expired. Waitlists
for childcare assistance exploded, forcing low-income households to
sideline a parent from the workforce or forgo necessities to foot a
childcare bill.
Since then, more candidates have campaigned on childcare solutions.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, pledged to
make childcare free for all residents. The Democratic governors of
New Jersey and Virginia elected last year both campaigned on plans
to increase childcare funding. The Democratic nominee for mayor in
Washington, D.C., won the primary in June after proposing to cap
childcare expenses at 7% of a household's income.
With childcare prices rising, Lerin Hagenbuch of Allentown says she
wonders why the country hasn't moved toward universal childcare. She
recalled when she and her husband, a quality assurance manager,
anxiously searched for childcare so she could return to her job as a
special education teacher, only to find that some of their options
would require her to take a second job.
Her son is now in kindergarten, but childcare costs remain one of
her top issues. She's a registered Republican, but hasn’t decided
how to vote next month.
“There are staff shortages everywhere," Hagenbuch said. “If these
moms or dads who are staying at home were able to even work part
time, what a shift that would be.”
$60 million in election spending boosts childcare issues
The Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, which advocates for
greater government support for paid leave, child care and elder
care, hopes voters like Hagenbuch will side with Democrats, who have
historically favored bigger-ticket childcare investments.
The political action committee said it has spent $60 million this
year backing Democrats in statehouse, congressional and governor's
races, targeting voters in a dozen states with canvassing, ads and
mailers. The campaign pursues voters from both parties who feel the
cost of caring for a child or an aging parent is growing untenable.
“This is something that every family is touched by,” said Phoebe
Kilgour, the campaign’s deputy executive director. “And so when you
talk to people about what candidates are gonna do to … lower the
cost of care, it can be super persuasive.”
A longtime preschool teacher, Becky Fisher of Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania, earns less than $20 an hour. Much of her paycheck goes
to pay for before- and after-school care for her two sons at the
childcare center where she works.
Fisher was raised in a conservative Christian household and
registered as a Republican when she graduated from high school,
voting for President George W. Bush's reelection. She switched
parties and in 2024 voted for then-Vice President Kamala Harris,
Democrats' unsuccessful nominee for president.
This year, she's still deciding how to vote, but says she wants to
back a congressional candidate who will do more than pay lip service
to supporting families and teachers. Childcare and early education
are among the lowest-paid professions in the nation. And many of the
field’s workers are parents like her.
“Every parent is exhausted,” Fisher said.
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