Excerpts
This is the year that the affordability crisis ushers Democrats back into power in Congress—or so they hope. With the November midterm elections looming, the party has been hammering President Trump on everything from the cost of groceries to skyrocketing energy bills to the monthly struggle to make rent (let alone afford a down payment on a home). Democrats have proposed various solutions to these problems, but one simple, clear policy is quickly gaining popularity as a key plank in their messaging: universal childcare.
In fact, some Democrats across the country aren’t waiting for the midterms to begin implementing it. New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham took the lead in September when she announced universal free childcare for every resident regardless of income. Since then, a number of other Democrats have picked up the mantle, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani—such that it’s shaping up to be a defining issue this fall.
In 45 states and Washington, D.C., the price of childcare in a day care center for two children is more than families pay in rent or on their mortgages, according to the most recent data available; the average single parent would have to spend 35 percent of their income on childcare for one child. Child Care Aware of America, a childcare advocacy and research group, found that from 2020 to 2024 the price of childcare rose 7 percent above inflation, which itself was soaring during that period. At the same time, childcare providers are some of the lowest-paid workers in the country, leaving the workforce in near poverty and chronically understaffed. It is a broken market.
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New York Governor Kathy Hochul is working with Mayor Mamdani to expand pre-K to 3- and 4-year-olds statewide, based on programs already being implemented in New York City. The statewide plan, which has not yet been funded, begins with Hochul establishing an Office of Child Care and Early Education, working with counties to expand existing programs, and increasing subsidies for families. Hochul has also pledged to work with Mamdani to finish implementing the program for 3-year-olds in the city, which stalled under Mayor Eric Adams, and start a new program for 2-year-olds.
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Republican-led states are not investing in childcare, though—so their services will only get worse, while many Democratic-led states work on making theirs better. The result, as we’ve seen in so many other ways, is a widening inequality of childcare across the country. Some states will become easier for families to raise children in, while other states become more difficult. That’s why childcare advocates, as happy as they are to see state-level progress, still hold out hope for national movement on the issue. It’s up to Democrats, then, to prove this fall that it’s a winning issue at the ballot box.