The Center Square polling: Inflation ranks among the top three issues for 46% of registered voters, while the national debt and government spending rank near the bottom, even as interest on that debt outran national defense spending this year.
Whitmer’s Asia trip: Michigan’s governor and her delegation spent more than $200,000 on an eight-day trip to South Korea and Taiwan, including $3,200 on a “cultural activity,” records obtained by The Center Square show.
Texas election confidence: One in four Texas likely voters says they are very confident November’s election will be conducted fairly, months after a backlog left more than 500,000 registrations in limbo.
Data center bill: A Senate bill would require large data centers to cover associated power grid upgrade costs. Critics warn it would also limit communities’ ability to challenge those projects.
Georgia spy truck: Georgia’s child welfare agency spent nearly $955,000 on an SUV equipped with cell phone surveillance technology, and eight days after The Center Square reported it, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took the keys.
Inflation tops voters’ concerns. What else makes the list?
Photo: / U.S. Department of Agriculture via Flickr / PDM 1.0 / Edited in Canva
What we found: Inflation ranks among the top three issues for 46% of registered voters, up nine percentage points since March, according to The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice Poll. The combined category of national debt and government spending drew 13%, compared with 14% in both March and August. October’s survey offered 21 issue choices; March’s offered 19. Inflation ranked first across all three political groups: 47% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters, 45% of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters, and 48% of voters who lean toward neither party selected it among their top three issues.
The stakes: The federal government spent $1.052 trillion on net interest on the debt in fiscal year 2026, more than the $965 billion it spent on national defense. Interest accounted for 14% of all federal spending, according to the Treasury Department. That works out to about $6,462 for each of the 162.8 million individual income tax returns the IRS processed in fiscal year 2025.
The backstory: Karlyn Bowman, a distinguished senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute who has studied public opinion since the 1970s, said the gap is a familiar one. “Price levels/increases are immediate. We all feel them,” she said. “Issues such as the government debt are more abstract. People don’t think about them in their daily lives.”
Where it stands: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported prices rose 3.7% over the year in September, up from 3.4% in August. Voters head to the polls Nov. 3 for the midterm elections.
3 States
Michigan: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her delegation spent more than $200,000 on an eight-day trip to South Korea and Taiwan in September, totaling about $26,000 a day, according to records The Center Square obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Her office said the trip was intended to bring jobs and investment to Michigan. It was her third visit to Taiwan in three years and followed a six-day trip to Europe in June that cost about $180,000. In Taiwan, she met President Lai Ching-te, who said he expects more Taiwan-United States industrial cooperation to follow.
Texas: One in four likely voters in Texas say they are very confident November’s election will be conducted fairly, a University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs poll found. The survey follows months of problems with the state’s voter registration system, which left a backlog of more than 500,000 registrations before the state said it fixed the issue. The poll of 2,000 registered voters expected to vote also puts Democratic state Rep. James Talarico at 48% and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton at 46% in the U.S. Senate race, a narrow gap within the survey’s reported margin of error.
Louisiana: A state rule requiring public school students to read at least one state-approved work of classic literature each year took effect Tuesday. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved it earlier this year, and schools must implement the requirement beginning in the 2027-28 academic year. The Department of Education’s list includes 100 titles: 10 for each grade from kindergarten through eighth and another 10 for high school. Selections include “Charlotte’s Web,” “Animal Farm,” and “The Odyssey.” Lawmakers appropriated $2 million for classroom library support to help fund the requirement.
2 Issues
Data centers: The U.S. Senate plans to take up the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, a 417-page bill that would speed approval for energy projects, including data center infrastructure, by scaling back environmental and judicial reviews. It would also require covered data center facilities with electricity demand of 20 megawatts or more, including expected demand at full buildout, to cover associated grid upgrade costs. In The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice Poll, 66% of registered voters said data center companies should pay for the upgrades. Separately, 36% favored limiting or pausing new data centers, while 35% favored allowing them with restrictions on their use of electricity, water, land, or infrastructure. Just 18% favored offering tax incentives.
Government surveillance: Georgia’s Department of Human Services, which oversees child protective services, bought a 2026 Chevrolet Traverse for $38,700 and paid nearly $916,000 more to install a cell-site simulator. The device imitates a cell tower, allowing an operator to locate nearby phones. Eight days after The Center Square first reported the purchase, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took possession of the vehicle. Records show the department has used federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money to fund the unit that bought it. State officials will not say who ordered the handover.
1 Number
$686,000
The reported total compensation in 2025 for Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, CEO of Global Refuge and a former policy director for First Lady Michelle Obama. The Baltimore-based refugee resettlement nonprofit received about 91% of its $170.4 million in revenue from government grants that year, an investigation by The Center Square found.
Runners refuse to race ahead of Washington’s girls’ sports vote
Several girls’ cross-country runners at a Washington state high school declined to compete against a transgender athlete who had competed in boys’ events earlier this season. Voters will decide Initiative 638, which concerns eligibility for girls’ school sports, on Nov. 3.
Phil Weiser, Colorado attorney general and candidate for governor
Christopher Gregory, former executive director of the state’s judicial discipline commission, told The Center Square he petitioned Boulder County Court for a civil protection order against Weiser, accusing him of helping conceal judicial misconduct. Weiser’s office declined to comment. The documents Gregory provided do not show anyone has been charged, and five outside investigations did not substantiate his allegations, the State Court Administrator’s Office said.
If the midterm elections were held today, which party’s candidate would you vote for?
The Center Square’s Voters’ Voice Poll asked 2,527 registered voters nationwide the same question in early October. See the results, including how voters who lean toward neither party and those under 30 responded.
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