Undecided voters are letting President Joe Biden know exactly how they feel about his economic policies before November.
Interactive video platform 2WAY has a new project called “The Undecideds,” in which voters from seven battleground states come together in focus groups to discuss the important issues that will sway them in the upcoming election.
In a brief clip that was released in advance of the airing of the full episode Wednesday evening, the participants represented Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which were described as “states that were swept by Donald Trump in 2016 and by Joe Biden in 2020, all by narrow margins.”
(The other four battleground states included in this project are North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.)
Mark Halperin, one of the founding members of 2Way, found that all eight participants in this installment of the project felt that former President Donald Trump’s economic policies were better than Biden’s.
Halperin told the group, “President Biden argues that his economic record has been very good. [He] said President Trump’s was not as good.”
The remark was met with laughter and smiles.
Halperin asked the group whether there was anything Biden could do or say before the election that would change their minds.
Would Trump be better for the economy?
Gigi, a Pennsylvania woman, said, “… I feel like he [Biden] doesn’t even take accountability … at all, with what’s going on. Not even accountability — like, he’s in denial that it’s happening.”
Virginia, a Pennsylvania woman expressed her concern in her state with high interest rates.
“Things are supposed to be being built and the interest rates are just way too high for people to invest and start moving around,” she said.
When Halperin asked what Biden has done that would cause her to cast blame on him, she again mentioned interest rates and how those have discouraged businesses from wanting to come to Pennsylvania.
Omar, a man from Michigan who voted for Biden in 2020, said the president needs to “hear the people, because when he’s talking about the economy doing stellar, he’s talking about the stock market. He’s not looking at homelessness or joblessness … He’s not … thinking about how much it costs to go to the grocery store. He’s gaslighting literally everyone in the process.”
Halperin called “The Undecideds” an “unprecedented” project “that will bring together the most critical voters in the country, drawn exclusively from the seven states that will pick the next American president.”
“Around 150 million people across America will vote in 2024, but the story of the election will be told by less than 4%, about 6 million voters in seven battleground states who can be grouped in many different ways,” Halperin explained on his Substack site.
Those voters, he said, include:
- The first- and second-generation Hispanics in Arizona;
- The “I was a Republican until Trump” voters in Pennsylvania;
- The “I was a Democrat until Biden” voters in North Carolina;
- The Arab-American voters in Michigan;
- The Blue state refugees in Georgia.
“Until now, America has been left with few insights into these small, hard-to-reach and hard-to-understand segments, the VIVs, or Very Important Voters, who often prefer to keep their opinions to themselves,” Halperin explained. “2WAY will change this reality. “
The full 2-hour premiere of “The Undecideds” airs Wednesday on a free Zoom call at 5 p.m. Eastern Time. You can find a link to watch here. The program will include the full 45-minute focus group meeting, followed by a review of polling and research related to the project.
It’s fairly certain how voters in red and blue states feel about each candidate, but 2WAY’s results from this project are telling.
The economy matters to everyone, and it could be a deal-breaker for Biden in the battleground states.
It is hard to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people on this issue.
When Americans see prices go up, interest rates climb and prospective home buyers face a poor market, they feel it.
Mainstream media outlets can downplay the president’s mental deficiencies.
The White House and DHS can deceive some people regarding the border crisis while telling us the real threat lies with Trump and his supporters.
The economy is different.
Its poor performance should prove pivotal when undecided voters go to the polls.
