Why Democrats Think They’ve Got the Winning Hand on Child Care

Democrats are convinced that child care affordability will be a winning message for their party ahead of the 2026 midterms.

While Republicans have taken steps to make it more accessible, Democrats argue they are not doing enough to keep up with the rising cost of child care. And Democrats say they are prepared to make that case in the coming months.

“It’s one of the top issues that we hear about for families,” Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions’ subcommittee on Education and the American Family, told NOTUS. “We would hope that our committees would be focusing on these things that matter to families, and we’re not seeing them.”

Democrats said they have examples for how it can be better.

In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a universal child care program that expands preschool access through targeted state funding that will provide free child care for two-year-olds statewide by 2028. New Mexico last year became the first state to offer no-cost universal child care for all two and three year-olds, which will soon apply to every New Mexican.

Not only do Democrats think they have policy solutions that voters will find attractive, but they also see a line of attack on Republicans.

“Child care continues to get more expensive,” Jaelin O’Halloran, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, told NOTUS in a statement. “While Trump and Republicans have offered no plans to follow through on their promises to lower costs, Democrats are focused on bringing down costs and making life more affordable for working families.”

According to data from Child Care Aware of America, an organization that partners with states to support a national child care system, the national average price of child care increased by more than $1,500 annually from 2023 to 2024, outpacing inflation by 7%. For households in 45 states and the District of Columbia with two or more children in a child care center, the price of child care exceeded annual mortgage payments.

“House Republicans are waging a war on the American family— slashing food assistance for kids, health care for families, and billions in education programs,” Aidan Johnson, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told NOTUS in a statement. “The DCCC will ensure voters remember that when they head to the polls this November.”

The affordability of child care is a pervasive problem across the country, regardless of party affiliation.

“Something like affordability, something like accessibility, these issues don’t care what state you live in,” said Jason Moss, Head of New Government Initiatives at Wonderschool, an organization that strategizes with states to create child care solutions. “I think there’s enough innovative practices that are out there that can be adapted to whatever side of the political spectrum that they’re on.”

A poll of national registered voters conducted by the Five First Years Fund, an organization aimed at building bipartisan support for child care at the federal level, and released last week, found that most working parents are concerned about child care affordability.

80% of the polled voters said child care is “in a state of crisis or a major problem.” Support across partisan lines remains strong for funding child care at the federal level, including 75% of Republicans and 97% of Democrats.

The federal government supports child care programs, including Head Start and the Child Care and Development Block Grant, although lawmakers have yet to find a federal solution to rising costs for working parents.

Republicans, however, said that President Donald Trump’s agenda is already solving these problems.

“Families are getting real relief under President Trump’s America First agenda — higher Child Tax Credits, stronger paid family leave, and expanded 529 plans that help parents save for the future,” Kiersten Pels, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, told NOTUS in a statement.

Pels was referring to changes to taxes included in the reconciliation package passed by Congress last year. They include child and dependent tax credit enhancements, increases in employer-provided child care credits and the administration’s creation of ‘Trump Accounts,’ which provide babies born between 2025 and 2028 with $1,000 from the Treasury Department in investment accounts.

Republicans said they’ve done enough on the issue to be able to satisfy voters.

“Of course I do,” said Sen. Roger Marshall, when asked if he sees an opening for Republicans to campaign on child care in the midterms.

“I think we have done something to help with that,” he said of Trump’s “America First” policies, including the Working Families Tax Cuts that would increase child tax credits for individuals and employers.

Democrats running for Congress are already capitalizing on this issue ahead of the midterms, especially those with young children.

“I talk to them about my work, being on the Dads Caucus, fighting for family leave, making sure that we figure a way to reinstate the child care and tax credits,” Rep. Derek Tran, a cofounder of the Lowering Costs Caucus, told NOTUS.

The lawmaker from California emphasized he believed that Democrats will win back the House, but to enact meaningful child care policies, they also need to win the Senate.

“This is something that I want to champion,” Rebecca Bennett, a candidate in New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District, told NOTUS. This is one of several seats across the country that the party hopes to flip from red to blue.

“What I’m proposing from a child care perspective is that we would cap the cost of child care at 7% of people’s incomes,” said Bennett, who has two children and added that she has personally experienced the “astronomical” price of child care in her home district. “And we actually already do this in the Department of Defense for the military.”

She was referring to programs, such as military-operated child care facilities and subsidies that exist to support service members and their families, arguing the model could be followed nationally.

In the meantime, Democrats continue to push for funding at the state and local level, some more sprawling than others.

“The opportunity is there to build a truly unique, high-quality, universal child care system,” New Mexico state House Speaker, Javier Martínez, told NOTUS of having secured funding for the state’s universal child care program. “Instead of waiting for the federal government to act and get their act together, we’re going to show what is possible.”