Battleground state voters signal possible shift as inflation rages: 'Under President Trump, it was better'

Pennsylvania residents expressed increasing concern about some Democratic policies, signaling a desire for change within the key battleground state.

"Fox & Friends Weekend" co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy spoke directly with voters in Allentown – a blue-leaning city that is 54% Hispanic – about their frustration, specifically with the economy.

One Allentown local said inflation has grown "excruciatingly high" over the past few years.

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"I can’t afford hardly anything," another said.

Concern about rising grocery prices, gas prices and wages keeping up with costs were echoed throughout the community. 

Although recent polling shows Kamala Harris performing better than Biden did among Hispanic voters, Republicans have made significant gains among the key demographic in recent years. 

CNN elections analyst Harry Enten laid out recent polling showing that former President Trump jumped nearly 30 points in voters’ views of him being able to handle immigration and border security.

According to an April Axios/Ipsos poll, Latino Americans overwhelmingly believe Trump would be better for the economy and immigration than the Biden administration. The poll found that 20% of Latinos think Biden is "good for the U.S. economy," while 42% of respondents said the same about Trump. As for immigration, 22% said Biden is "good" on the issue, while 29% said the same for Trump.

Former President Trump is ready to debate Vice President Kamala Harris.  (Photographer: Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images | Photographer: Hannah Beier/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The residents of Allentown reflect the trends seen in those polls. 

"More Latino voters, Indian voters, they're moving more into the right, more into Donald Trump," one resident said. "Under President Trump, it was better. There was more people spending money, people who were like traveling more, spending, getting haircuts more often.

"Two years ago, everybody hated him. Now [the] majority are like, ‘no, I'm voting for Trump,’" another resident added. 

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A number of residents expressed a possible interest in voting Republican, rather than sticking to the Democratic ticket.

"I was a Democrat, and I started to realize the policies that I was voting in wasn't my standards or what I believed," a woman told Campos-Duffy.

Another woman added, "The Republican Party has the values that we hold dear: That is God, family, life."

Residents again and again offered stories of people shifting to the right. One man argued, "we got to get Trump into office" in order to fix the economy. 

Earlier this week, VP Harris touted her economic message in Philadelphia at a rally to introduce Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. 

"We fight for a future where we build a broad-based economy, where every American has the opportunity to own a home, to start a business, and to build wealth," she said. "We fight for a future where we bring down prices that are still too high and lower the cost of living for America’s families, so that they have the chance not just to get by, but to get ahead," she said.

Fox News' Gabriel Hays, Remy Numa and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.