Republicans are going to hold the special election in the Tennessee 7th congressional district. The result is not that surprising, given the pretty apparent flaws of the Democratic candidate, but the margin does raise eyebrows. The result confirms the obvious from the other elections this year: voters are still unhappy about inflation.

It's the economy, stupid.

Before looking at the election, I want to note one price category that hits every day Americans: the price of a single pound of ground beef. When Joe Biden took office in January 2021, Americans paid around $3.97 a pound for ground beef - a staple in any kitchen. It went up every month after that.

The latest CPI data we have shows the average price of ground beef nationwide is $6.32 a pound. When Trump entered office, that number was around $5.45 a pound.

Now, there are some very specific market variables at play in this single data point that I don't want to dwell on. There are reasons for the price rises, and you can point to other individual food items and find drops (see: eggs).

But the broader point that I've driven home for years now is that prices are too high, across the board, and what Americans want is price relief. Americans want prices to crash. At no point did Biden pursue policies that would bring prices down. When you combine that with his age and health, he single-handedly destroyed the Democratic Party, and Kamala Harris claimed this was a successful administration and lost with him.

Donald Trump was elected to solve this problem. That's not happening. Tariffs are the common bogeyman in the inflation talk, but that's a red herring. The real issue remains the same pre-tariffs: the primary drivers of inflation in this economy have not been addressed.

Returning to beef for a moment, the price of beef at grocery stores has spiked so high that American shopping behavior is changing. While restaurant prices are going up, Americans are rushing to steakhouse chains like Texas Roadhouse, Longhorns, and Outback because it makes more sense, from a value perspective, to buy steaks there than at the store.

This is entirely rational behavior. For the cost of a whole steak in the grocery store, you can get a meal in the restaurant and have a better time. It is a cost-saving move if you want a steak.

The same behavior that's impacting steakhouses is triggering shifts in voting behavior. Voters are not stupid. They understand prices are going up, and they want that to go down. They are going to blame whoever holds power and claims they can fix that issue. If nothing happens, people pivot.

That brings me back to the race in Tennessee. I live next door to the district in question, and became well acquainted with the advertisements for and against each candidate against my will. If you're going to watch live college football, you're a captive audience with no escape, and may God have mercy on your soul.

The Democrat, Aftyn Behn, could not have been a worse fit had you designed her in a lab to be antithetical to a winning candidate. She was perfect for a national press who wanted someone who hated red state America, while holding all the same beliefs as anyone in a coastal elite city.

Tennessee had an extremely popular and successful Democratic Governor not long ago, his name was Phil Bredesen. He lost a statewide Senate race in 2018, despite running a highly competent campaign. His margins were great for a Democrat, and he sounded nothing like Aftyn Behn.

The point is this: Behn drove out the Democratic vote while providing no one any reason to join her. A competent campaign could have narrowed those margins more. Democrats claiming she's a model nationwide are insane. Voters are unhappy with Republicans, for sure. They're not asking for Behn.

More broadly, the race was close because voters are unhappy. And to be blunt, they're right to be dissatisfied. We're heading into a fifth straight year of inflation, the overriding economic issue, and driving issue of campaigns. Neither party has any solutions for this right now, which is frustrating to everyone.

What is even more frustrating is that this is a repeat of the 1970s, and we're not getting the resounding answer. Paul Volcker and Ronald Reagan wrote the book on crushing inflation.

Democrats like to claim that supply-side economics don't work. But we know the exact opposite is true. We tried every dumb response in the 1970s to reduce inflation's impact, and none of them worked. Jimmy Carter got wiped out by it, talking about a malaise.

In the 1980s, we solved it. Paul Volcker cranked interest rates through the roof to crush demand. Ronald Reagan pushed through tax cuts and policies to boost domestic supply. The result was a recession that, in turn, triggered the end of inflation, followed by an economic boom that lasted until 2008.

The answers are there if we're willing to acknowledge the actual problem. Right now, prices are too high. To crash prices, you need to crush demand (by raising interest rates) and boost supply (by helping America increase its supply of everything). That will deliver the exact result Americans, naturally, want.

The only person who could do that is Donald Trump. Democrats are dancing with socialism as the answer to all life's problems, despite centuries of proof that this doesn't work. Republicans still hold the keys to the answer.

The best time to take this path was last year. The next best time to take this path is now. Fix the problem that voters have complained about for nearly five years.