Former RNC political director creates tool for voters to see cost of living changes over the years
Former political director of the National Republican Convention Gentry Collins discussed the creation of a new tool for undecided voters to use when determining who to vote for in the upcoming 2024 election.
"Survey after survey after survey shows that swing voters in swing states care about household affordability," Collins said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "They can't afford their gas, they can't afford their groceries, they can't afford the mortgage, their credit card bills are going through the roof and nobody is talking to them about it as directly as we ought to be."
The tool is titled Gas and Groceries and it allows voters to enter their zip code and see how prices have increased or decreased over the years through different presidencies.
"What we've been able to do with our gas and groceries project is to allow voters in any zip code in the country to enter their zip code online and to see just the plain facts [with] no spin, no issue advocacy [and] no advocacy," Collins said.
He added that voters would be able to see what the price of groceries were under former President Donald Trump's administration and what they are under President Joe Biden's administration.
"What was your life like when it came to the price of a car to groceries or or a gallon of gas or mortgage affordability and so on in your zip code at the end of the Trump presidency, versus what it looks like here at the end of the Biden Harris administration," Collins said.
One of the biggest concerns for Americans in the upcoming election is the economy and inflation.
Gas and Groceries cites that groceries are up 25% in cost since Biden became the president-specifically that egg costs are about 72% higher than when Trump was in office.
"We're trying to provide a tool to swing voters in America to cut through all of the garbage that's coming at them, and be able to say just the facts: 'Was my life better under Donald Trump's policies or is my life better under Kamala Harris's policies?'" Collins said.
Inflation has also been a huge issue that voters are concerned about. Recently the International Longshoremen’s Association started a short-lived strike: the first coast-wide strike to take place since 1977.
Trump said inflation was the cause of the strike.
"The situation should have never come to this and, had I been President, it would not have," Trump said in a press release. "This is only happening because of the inflation brought on by Kamala Harris’ two votes for massive, out-of-control spending, and her decision to cut off energy exploration," his statement continued. "Americans who thrived under President Trump can’t even get by because of Kamala Harris - this strike is a direct result of her actions."
The port worker strike would impact the U.S. import and export of goods from retail products to cars and could cost the U.S. economy as much as $5 billion each day.
Collins said that Gas and Groceries has facts listed as well as scoreboards so users don't get overwhelmed with a ton of information.
"You're not going to get a volume of stuff to read," he stated. "You're going to get a couple of very basic measurements about what has happened in your own zip code, to the price of groceries, to the price of gas, to the price of a mortgage, to rent and household affordability more generally-so just those basic measurements."