Off-year elections rarely dominate headlines, yet they often hint at what’s to come. The 2025 state elections did just that, redrawing parts of the U.S. political landscape and offering clues about voter priorities heading into the 2026 midterms. The theme that cut through nearly every race reached well beyond party lines: the economy still defines everything.
For months, polls have shown that Americans are worried about prices more than politics. Last week’s results confirmed it. Inflation may have cooled on paper, but rent, utilities, and grocery bills remain high, and voters carried that frustration to the polls.
For convenience services operators— from micro market and vending providers to office coffee and pantry partners — these results hint at where policy will move next and how advocacy helps members prepare, not just react.
Affordability Drives Voter Decisions
In the Associated Press survey of voters in Virginia, New Jersey, California and New York City, the economy and cost of living ranked as the top concern in every marquee race. ABC’s exit polling found similar patterns. In Virginia and New Jersey, pluralities of voters said economic conditions or the cost of living were more important than immigration or crime, and those voters broke decisively for Democrats in this cycle’s contests.
That mood helps explain the renewed engagement in suburban and exurban counties (areas that had drifted toward the GOP in recent cycles). In Loudoun County, Virginia, for example, turnout rose by nearly 9 percent, and Democratic margins doubled compared with 2023.
And while many polls confirmed an arc about economic anxiety, there was no clear unifying message about how to solve it. Some leaders may interpret the outcomes as a call for collaboration, focusing on pragmatic cost-of-living solutions that cross party lines. Others may read them as a mandate to move faster on wage, energy, or environmental initiatives that appeal to their base.
Neither direction is predetermined. Politically, the salience of affordability raises the odds that 2026 state sessions prioritize pocketbook issues, but the form those policies take will differ by jurisdiction. What’s certain is that these contrasting impulses will shape how quickly and aggressively states pursue new regulations or business incentives in 2026.
Democrat Gains Redefine Political Divide
It’s tempting to read the 2025 map as a correction after the 2024 election. But 2025’s results are not so clear cut. Voters backed leaders who promised to make daily life work better, whether through pragmatic budgeting or ambitious affordability agendas. That same voter pressure and impatience, however, can push politics in opposite directions: toward cooperation in some places, confrontation in others.
Against that backdrop, Democratic candidates achieved important wins that demonstrate both consolidation and expansion of their influence at the state and local levels. In Virginia, for example, Abigail Spanberger won by double digits after emphasizing basic economic stewardship and pragmatic governance. In contrast, progressive Democrats in New York City and Seattle emphasized more expansive housing and affordability policies.
This emerging divide — a Democratic Party perhaps growing in strength but splitting in ideology — defines the uncertainty of the year ahead. That mix of pragmatism and pressure will shape both policymaking and tone heading into 2026.
For operators, that means watching tone as closely as text: which states stress partnership, and which frame affordability as justification for heavier regulation.
All told, these shifts favor industries that demonstrate local impact, which means NAMA members’ everyday role in fueling workplaces and communities is a story worth continuing to tell.
States Will Be the Policy Engine Through 2026
With a divided Congress, most near-term change will emerge from the states. That includes areas central to convenience services: labor, packaging costs, food policy, transportation, and tax reform.
This reality highlights how political control at local levels can drive policy innovation and serve as a proving ground or counterbalance for national politics. Most of the government activity that shapes day-to-day operations — sales taxes to micro market regulation — occurs in statehouses, not on Capitol Hill.
Advocacy Connects the Dots Before Policy Takes Shape
Elections reveal public sentiment. Policy, though, develops quietly and in stages, in hearings, comment periods and budget negotiations.
This election cycle’s emphasis on economic realities over ideological purity points to an electorate focused keenly on daily life challenges, providing a nuanced foundation upon which political parties continue to build. NAMA’s advocacy teams use these shifts to brief lawmakers on the real-world effects of statutes. The aim is not only to follow policy, but to help shape it early, with clear examples from the field.
For operators, this period offers a useful opening to share that perspective. Explain how your business supports jobs, keeps workplaces supplied and contributes to your local economy. As a constituent, your experience carries weight when lawmakers set their agendas.
Find your local representative contacts here.