A $3 can of soup has become a symbol of mounting frustration among Florida retirees who voted for President Donald Trump and now say rising prices are straining their fixed incomes.

The Washington Post spoke with Midwestern retirees who helped shift Florida firmly into the Republican column and are now turning to Democrats in hopes of relief from the rising cost of living ahead of the midterm elections.

The report profiled Dar Carlson, 78, who left Michigan for Florida’s Gulf Coast to spend her retirement years. The price of an everyday grocery item summed up her growing dissatisfaction with the way things were going.

“I can’t believe a can of soup costs $3,” Carlson said, pointing to the grocery bag she was carrying outside a Publix supermarket.

Carlson expressed regret over her 2024 vote for Trump and her earlier support for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “I expected things to change, but now I feel it’s got worse,” she said. She added that too many wealthy people were running the country with little regard for the middle class.

Carlson is not the only senior in the state on a fixed income to find that higher prices have pushed everyday goods further out of reach. For retirees whose monthly budgets have little room to absorb price increases, staples like groceries carry outsized weight, which helps explain why a routine shopping trip has become a proxy for broader economic anxiety. With the midterms approaching, the rising cost of living is weighing heavily on many retirees’ minds.

According to the Post, hundreds of thousands of Midwesterners have moved to Florida over the past decade and were instrumental in turning the once-swing state into a solidly Republican one. Yet the cost of living under the Trump administration has made it hard for many to enjoy the retirement they had in mind.

On Nov. 3, Carlson is leaning toward voting for Democrats, and other Midwestern transplants are also preparing to back the party. According to the Post, some Democratic strategists see that shift as one of the main reasons several Florida races that were longshots earlier in the year have become competitive.

Steve Schale, the Democrat who ran Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign in the state, calls Florida a “mirror” of the politics and values of the states its new residents come from, including the “fairly moderate” Midwest.

While Hispanic voters are the most significant swing group in the state and the nation this cycle, retirees drawn to the Gulf Coast by the weather and the lack of a state income tax on retirement benefits could have an outsize influence on the results.

The nonpartisan Cook Political Report last month moved Florida’s 13th Congressional District, which covers much of Pinellas County, from Likely Republican to Lean Republican, despite the GOP having redrawn the district to make it more favorable to the party. That ratings shift, coming even after favorable redistricting, has turned the seat into one of the clearest places to watch whether retiree discontent shows up at the ballot box.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R), elected in 2022, represents the district and faces Leela Gray, an attorney and retired Army brigadier general who won the Democratic primary in August. Recent polls suggest a close race, although several have been sponsored by Democratic-aligned groups. The latest survey, conducted in October, showed Luna narrowly ahead, with the difference within the margin of error — leaving the Nov. 3 result poised to serve as a measure of whether the frustration voiced outside that Publix translates into votes.