The group plans to pay $50 million to make child care a major issue in the midterm elections

WASHINGTON (AP) — An advocacy group hopes to expand support for child and elder care plans to spend $50 million to support Democrats in congressional races, tying the costs of caregiving to the nation’s affordability debate.

The Campaign for a Family-Friendly Economy, created a decade ago, aims to make caregiver issues more prominent in elections. The announcement comes as the cost of child care continues to rise and as waiting lists continue to grow for federal child care subsidies, which support working families experiencing poverty.

Sondra Goldshein, executive director of the campaign and its political action committee, said child care and elder care are important in the conversation about affordability, especially since child care costs exceed what families pay for housing. Then there are the pressures on the “sandwich generation” made up of middle-aged people who care for their children and their parents at the same time.

“When child care costs more than your rent or mortgage, or when you have to sacrifice your salary so you can care for a loved one,” that can motivate people on how to vote, Goldschein said. “Every election cycle, we see candidates realizing that more and more.”

She hopes the message resonates at a time when families face a slew of rising costs, including rising gas prices due to a war in the Middle East that is unpopular with many voters.

The campaign plans to pour support for Democrats in Senate races in North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Maine, and Ohio, and in House races in Iowa and Pennsylvania. Volunteers are also scheduled to be sent to talk to voters about caregiving.

The Republican National Congressional Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Republicans have begun to support child care as a critical issue for workforce development, but their proposals tend to be less dramatic than those offered by Democrats. Last year, through President Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill, Republicans made an estimated 4 million more families eligible for the child care tax credit. The law also increased child care assistance for military families and tax breaks for employers who provide child care for their workers.

Before 2020, many candidates rarely talked about child care. But the pandemic has exposed the fragility and necessity of the child care industry. Nurseries and child care centers have been pressured to stay open until parents with front-line jobs — such as those in health care — can return to work.

Read more: Mamdani and Hochul unveil free child care plan in New York City

Then-President Joe Biden successfully persuaded Congress in 2021 to pass $39 billion in child care aid, allowing states to provide support to more families and subsidize the wages of child care workers. Later that year, Biden sought to create universal preschool nationwide and dramatically expand child care subsidies for families so that none of them pay more than 7% of family income for care. But the proposal narrowly failed in Congress. Since then, aid to confront the pandemic has dried up, and families are feeling the pinch of rising costs.

Now, many candidates have focused their campaigns on the affordability of child care. New York Mayor Zahran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who won election on a pledge to make the city more affordable for middle-class residents, ran on the basis of universal child care. Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia won election after pledging to expand child care subsidies.

This election cycle, candidates are running on universal child care pledges. These Democrats include Janez Lewis George, who is running for mayor of Washington, D.C., and Francesca Hong, who is running for governor of Wisconsin. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, up for re-election this year, has pledged to support Mamdani’s ambitions and eventually expand universal child care statewide.

Neither the White House nor the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees federal child care programs, responded to requests for comment. In his 2024 campaign, during a speech to the Economic Club of New York, Trump said higher foreign tariffs would “take care” of child care costs. This plan has not yet been achieved.

In Trump’s current term, the administration has largely focused on cracking down on fraud, after a viral video alleged that Somali-run child care centers in Minneapolis were demanding that the government pay for children they were not caring for.

Although there have been prosecutions stemming from child welfare subsidy fraud, the central allegations of the Minneapolis video have been refuted by state inspectors. However, the Trump administration attempted to freeze child care funding in Minnesota and five other Democratic-led states until a court ordered the funding released.