The U.S. economy sure seems to be booming. But as a campaign issue, it can't compete with Donald Trump.
Unemployment is at 3.9 percent nationwide, a 49-year low, according to Monday's newly released U.S. Department of Labor report. And though wages have stagnated, the number of jobs created has grown for more than eight years straight following a brutal recession.
California employers added 44,800 net jobs in August, and the unemployment rate held at a record low of 4.2 percent.
But that may not give the expected boost to 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 added.
A recent USC Dornsife-Los Angeles Times poll of 5,045 Americans _ including 2,513 likely voters _ found that one in five likely voters, both Democrats and Republicans, still list the economy as one of their top issues.
Asked to pick from a list the one issue they considered most important, Democratic voters put healthcare 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 all issues paled as a motivator when compared with their view of Trump.
Roughly three out of four 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 USC's Center for the Political Future's co-director and a longtime Democratic strategist.
"Regardless of the jobs numbers, people still feel enormous anxiety both around healthcare and housing," said Bill Carrick, a longtime Los Angeles political strategist who represents Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in her race against a more progressive Democrat, Kevin de Leon. "And they're wondering, will this economy lead to higher wages?"
(Mark Z. Barabak and David Lauter contributed to this report.)
