ElectionCalendar - Ballotpedia

• Nancy Pelosi announced she will not seek reelection in 2026, ending a four-decade congressional career.  

• Progressive Democrats strongly criticized Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, warning that alienating the left risks losing key House seats.  

• In a major city race, Katie Wilson, running on a progressive affordability platform (universal childcare, social housing, transit), won the Seattle mayoral race.  

• Over 1,000 Starbucks workers across 65+ stores went on a one-day strike demanding union contracts, highlighting worker power and labor rights.  

• Democrats won big in 2025 races — reinforcing that affordability is in the minds of voters.

Tariff cuts = admission the tariffs hurt consumers.

Progressives are pointing out that rolling back tariffs is essentially Trump conceding that his own trade war helped jack up grocery, coffee, and household goods prices.

• The proposed $2,000 “tariff dividend” is basically a political rebate, not a real affordability plan.

Left-leaning economists note that actual tariff revenue can’t cover anything close to that amount, so the proposal is more PR than policy.

• 50-year mortgages lower monthly payments but trap households in decades of extra interest.

Progressives warn it’s a Band-Aid for high housing costs that doesn’t build wealth and only delays the core problems: rent hikes, corporate landlords, and lack of affordable housing stock.

• 15-year car loans are a red flag, not a solution.

Stretching auto loans to 15 years signals that cars are now so overpriced that Americans can’t afford them without predatory-style loan terms.

• No action on price-gouging, corporate mergers, or monopoly power.

Left-leaning advocates stress that the biggest drivers of today’s inflated prices come from consolidated corporate sectors — something these proposals completely ignore.

• Tariff cuts might lower some prices (coffee, imported staples), but not the big ones.

Housing, healthcare, childcare, education — the core drivers of the affordability crisis — would remain untouched.

• Payments and long loans shift the burden onto consumers, not corporations.

Instead of reining in corporate power, Trump is offering tools that increase household debt while corporations continue posting record profits.

• Progressives argue affordability fixes should be systemic, not stopgaps.

That means housing supply, minimum wage increases, union power, healthcare costs, and competition policy — not extended mortgage debt and one-time checks.

• The proposals help in the short term, but worsen the long-term burden.

Lower monthly payments today; dramatically higher total costs over the lifetime of the loan.