Rising Child Care Costs Fuel Major Political Push in Key Races

Group Invests $50M to Elevate Child Care, Elder Care in 2026 Races

Children draw in one of the classrooms at the Children’s Promise Centers child care center in Albuquerque, N.M., April 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

(AP) An advocacy group seeking to expand support for child and elder care says it plans to spend $50 million to boost Democrats in key congressional races, aiming to tie the rising cost of caregiving to the nation’s broader affordability debate.

The Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy, founded about a decade ago, is working to elevate caregiver issues as a central concern for voters. Its latest push comes as child care costs continue to climb nationwide and waiting lists for federal subsidies grow, leaving many working families struggling to secure affordable care.

Sondra Goldschein, the campaign’s executive director and head of its political action committee, said caregiving expenses are increasingly shaping how Americans think about the economy. In many parts of the country, she noted, the cost of child care now exceeds what families pay for housing, placing intense financial strain on households.

“When child care can cost more than your rent or a mortgage, or you have to sacrifice a paycheck in order to be able to take care of a loved one, that becomes a real voting issue,” Goldschein said. She added that the burden is especially heavy on the so-called “sandwich generation,” adults who are simultaneously caring for children and aging parents.

The group plans to direct funding and organizing efforts into competitive Senate races in North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Maine and Ohio, as well as House contests in Iowa and Pennsylvania. Volunteers will also be deployed to speak directly with voters about caregiving challenges and economic pressures tied to family responsibilities.

Republicans have increasingly acknowledged child care as an economic issue tied to workforce participation, though their policy approaches generally differ from those proposed by Democrats. During his presidency, Donald Trump backed measures that expanded access to child care tax credits, making millions more families eligible. The legislation also increased support for military families and provided incentives for employers to offer child care benefits.

Still, Democrats have largely pushed for broader, more systemic reforms. Before 2020, child care was rarely a centerpiece issue in national campaigns. That changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed the fragility of the child care system as centers struggled to remain open while supporting essential workers.

In 2021, then-President Joe Biden signed legislation providing $39 billion in emergency child care funding, allowing states to expand subsidies and stabilize providers. He later proposed a more sweeping plan that would have created universal prekindergarten and capped child care costs at 7% of household income. That proposal ultimately failed to pass Congress.

With pandemic-era aid now expired, many families are once again facing rising costs and limited access. As a result, child care affordability has become a more prominent campaign issue at both the state and local levels.

Several Democratic candidates have built campaigns around expanding access to affordable care. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani ran on a platform that included universal child care. Governors such as Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia have also emphasized expanding subsidies and support for working families.

Other candidates are following suit, including Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George and Iowa gubernatorial hopeful Francesca Hong. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul has pledged to work toward expanding universal child care statewide if reelected.

Meanwhile, the current administration has taken a different approach, focusing in part on oversight of existing programs. Federal officials have emphasized efforts to combat fraud in child care subsidy systems following allegations involving providers in Minneapolis. While some prosecutions have occurred, investigators later found that key claims in a widely circulated video were unsubstantiated.

Despite that, federal officials attempted to temporarily freeze child care funding to several Democratic-led states, including Minnesota, before a court ordered the funds to be released.

As the 2026 election cycle intensifies, advocates say the growing cost of caregiving is likely to remain a central issue. For many families, the challenge of balancing work, child care and elder care is no longer a private struggle but a defining economic concern—one that could influence how voters cast their ballots in the months ahead.