The U.S. economy seems to be booming. But as a campaign issue, it can't compete with President Donald Trump.
Unemployment is at 3.9 percent nationwide, a 49-year low, according to Friday's U.S. Labor Department report. And though wages have stagnated, the number of jobs created has grown for more than eight years straight after the 2007-09 recession.
But that may not the help Republicans going into November's midterm elections, according to political strategists and pollsters in both parties. Campaign messages trumpeting economic expansion have largely been drowned out by the noise surrounding the president.
"The GDP could be growing at 4 percent," said Charlie Cook, publisher of Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan handicapper's guide to elections around the country. "It could be growing at 10 percent and my wife and daughter would still hate him."
"People who are angry or afraid are disproportionately more motivated to vote than those who are happy, satisfied and complacent," he said.
A recent USC Dornsife-Los Angeles Times poll of 5,045 Americans _ including 2,513 likely voters _ found that 20 percent of likely voters, Democrats and Republicans, still list the economy as a top issue.
Asked to pick from a list the one issue they considered most important, Democratic voters put health care at the top, followed by the economy and jobs. Republican voters put the economy and jobs at the top, followed by taxes and spending and illegal immigration.
But the poll showed that all issues paled as a motivator when compared with the poll respondents' view of Trump.
Roughly 75 percent of likely voters said they saw their vote this fall as an opportunity to express a view of Trump. Those planning to register their opposition outnumbered Trump supporters, 45 percent to 29 percent.
"I can't think of an election in which the economy was driving the vote less," said Robert Shrum, co-director of the University of Southern California's Center for the Political Future's co-director and a longtime Democratic strategist.
The partisan divide over those issues surfaced in an exchange between Republican Rep. Steve Knight of Palmdale and Democratic challenger Katie Hill at a September debate.
"The tax system needs to be more equitable," Hill said. "There's massive income inequality. The vast majority of benefits are not going to people who are struggling with poverty, or to the middle class."
Knight offered a different view. "We are going to try and continue this booming economy," he said. "Taxes 2.0 and 3.0 are following the tax cut we already did."
As Hill decried "wage stagnation," Knight distanced himself from Trump's recent announcement of a freeze on federal employee wages, saying, "We oppose this.... We shouldn't have that freeze. It is a small item that we can absorb in the budget that makes a world of difference to people."
Hill hammered on health care. "It's incredibly expensive for employers and individuals," she said. "When you have a sick workforce, unable to get health care, it's not good for business...When people are spending thousands on health care, they're not investing it here."
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(Mark Z. Barabak, Michael Finnegan and David Lauter contributed to this report.)
