From the War on Iran to Childcare, Congress Will Have a Path To Addressing the Affordability Crisis — And More Moms Than Ever in Congress To Lead That Effort.
Democrats won big in an election defined by affordability. Now, they’ll have to deliver — and women will be watching.
Typically the managers of household budgets, women make the vast majority of consumer purchases across the country, putting them face-to-face with the high cost of living that became a driving force behind the blue tsunami that swept the nation Tuesday.
Early data shows women swung hard for Democrats this election compared to 2024. In The 19th/YouGov poll from September, more women than men consistently said they were very worried about the cost of healthcare, housing, groceries and utilities. To handle those cost-of-living issues, including childcare, women were also more likely than men to say they trusted Democrats.
Now, Democrats have gained control of both the House and the Senate. That could give them a path to pass policy, but they’ll still have to contend with a presidential veto, and they are short of a two-thirds majority in the Senate to override it.
Reshma Saujani, the founder and CEO of Moms First, an organization pushing for affordable childcare and other family policies, said in a statement Wednesday that voters will still be expecting change.
“A campaign promise is not a policy. Popular issues don’t pass themselves. They pass when lawmakers feel the heat, and moms are done waiting patiently for change,” she said. “The clock starts now.”
It’s clear that affordability will likely be the first thing that the party tackles once in power in January. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat from New York who is in line to take over as Speaker of the House, said the party now has “a responsibility to govern on affordability.”
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, told CNN on Wednesday that could look like Congress moving to end the war in Iran, which has caused gas prices to rise, making everything from school supplies to groceries to Halloween candy more expensive to produce and ship. It could also mean working to curtail tariffs that are also contributing to the rising cost of goods and undoing the cuts to Medicaid funding that have impacted healthcare coverage and cut 4 million Americans from the Supplemental Food Assistance Program, known as SNAP.
“These are common sense, arguably bipartisan ideas that we can get done,” Gillibrand said, even without a Democratic supermajority in the Senate. “People are tired of not being able to feed their families.”
In practice, to end the war on Iran, which Trump launched in February without congressional approval, legislators could limit government funding, making it more difficult to carry out the conflict. New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer indicated Congress could use the “power of the purse” to deter the war.
There’s also the War Powers Resolution, which calls for an end to military action within 60 days unless Congress declares war, a milestone reached back in May. Neither the Republican-controlled House nor Senate has successfully passed a legally binding joint resolution to halt or continue military action. With a Democratic majority, that “should be the first thing on the docket,” along with a proposal to revoke Trump’s tariff policies, said Elizabeth Pancotti, the vice president of policy, advocacy and research at Groundwork Action, the advocacy arm of the left-leaning think tank Groundwork Collaborative. She advised Sen. Bernie Sanders on economic policy and researched economic policy at several think tanks.
The president still has veto power if either of those pass, but the optics have changed significantly. Trump conceded on election night that the war was likely part of the reason Democrats were able to claim so many victories.
“I think part of it was Iran,” he told Fox News. Vice President J.D. Vance also said as much in a long post on X.
On reversing the cuts to Medicaid, the bill that authorized them was passed through a budget reconciliation measure without a supermajority in the Senate, so a supermajority won’t be needed to reverse it, Pancotti said.
“Within 24 hours, Democrats in both chambers should pass a bill that repeals the sweeping cuts to public benefit programs and cuts to taxes on the wealthy,” she said, though Trump could block that effort. The president said Wednesday that he was prepared to work with Democrats.
In Pancotti’s view, there is one more option that Democrats could pursue that would sidestep any concerns about a presidential veto: begin subpoenaing major corporations that have raised prices for consumers.
“The most important thing Dems can do is to use that congressional oversight power and the bully pulpit to really bring corporations who are ripping us off — whether it’s on the inhaler for your child or the stroller you are buying for a new baby or your health insurance premiums, or the lunch meat at the grocery store,” Pancotti said. “The alternative is many, many, many months of negotiation with Republicans in Congress and the White House on legislation that will then take months or years to go into effect. And so it is actually the faster alternative to bringing prices down.”
Accountability is something Nancy Pontius, a childcare worker and mother of two in Pennsylvania, is hoping to see from the next Congress. She wants to see limits on corporate donations to candidates and more money return to the pockets of working people.
“The central point for me was I had to vote for the Democrats in order to stop the direction that our country was going — we have to get prices under control,” she said.
Pontius started working in childcare in order to get an employee discount so she could put her own children in care. And still, her paycheck covers only her rent and nothing else, she said.
If costs come down, she hopes Democrats will turn their attention to universal childcare.
This cycle, dozens of candidates campaigned on universal childcare or childcare affordability and many won, including Senate Democratic candidates Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who campaigned on universal childcare and pre-K, and Troy Jackson in Maine, who has proposed a plan offering free childcare to families earning up to 125 percent of the state median income. The issue is expected to take on even more prominence in the 2028 election. Women, and mothers especially, will be watching what happens between now and then.
At MomsRising, a nationwide network advocating for family policies, more than a million moms wrote handwritten postcards inviting others to vote in the midterms and more than 6,000 led voting parties. The organization endorsed 167 local, state and federal candidates who were committed to lowering the cost of childcare — the highest number ever. In 2024, the number was 110.
“We have moved closer to a Congress that reflects and respects who we are as a nation,” said Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, the executive director and CEO of MomsRising.
About 95 percent of the more than 200 candidates endorsed by Vote Mama, an organization that supports parents running for office, also won their races as of Wednesday afternoon. All of them are people who are living the very issues they will legislate on, said Liuba Grechen Shirley, founder and CEO of the Vote Mama PAC.
“They know the cost of groceries because they’re the ones dragging children to the grocery store, looking at the cost of what everything is,” Shirley said. “And when you raise a kid in this country and you understand how expensive childcare is, what it’s like to go back to work literally 10 days after giving birth, those are the priorities that you’re going to fight for.”
In the 120th Congress, 10 additional moms will join the House, and three more will join the Senate. Shirley spent much of the election aftermath connecting the new members to existing mothers in office via text. Now, “moms have a mandate to get to Congress and to prove they can do something,” she said.
Saujani, who has been one of the most vocal proponents of lowering childcare costs nationally, including by successfully petitioning to get a childcare question into the presidential debate in 2024, said she wants to see childcare and paid parental leave policies “across the finish line” in two years.
“When the next presidential campaign starts, voters will want receipts,” she said. “Show up with results, or show up with excuses.”
This article was previously published by The 19th on November 5, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was affordability important to women voters?
Women reported significant concerns about the cost of healthcare, housing, groceries, utilities and childcare. These cost-of-living pressures helped make affordability a major issue in the election.
What can Congress do to lower the cost of living?
Congress can pursue policies addressing healthcare, childcare, food assistance, tariffs and other costs affecting household budgets. Lawmakers can also use congressional oversight to investigate corporate pricing practices.
Can Congress make childcare more affordable?
Yes. Congress can consider policies such as childcare subsidies, expanded tax credits and universal childcare programs. The article notes that numerous candidates campaigned specifically on childcare affordability.
Can Congress reverse Medicaid and SNAP cuts?
Congress can pass legislation restoring funding or reversing previous reductions to programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. However, legislation may still face a presidential veto.
How could Congress address high grocery and consumer prices?
Congress can address policies affecting production and transportation costs, examine tariffs and use its oversight authority to investigate companies accused of excessive price increases.
Why are mothers in Congress important to affordability issues?
More mothers will serve in the new Congress, bringing personal experience with issues such as childcare, groceries, healthcare, paid leave and balancing employment with caregiving responsibilities.
What family policies could Congress consider?
Potential policies include affordable or universal childcare, paid parental leave, expanded child tax credits and assistance for working families.
Will affordability remain an issue in future elections?
The article suggests it will. Voters who supported candidates promising lower costs will be looking for measurable results on childcare, healthcare, housing, groceries and other household expenses before the next election cycle.
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