With Election Day hours away, Paletuatoa Peniamina released a campaign message centered on cost-of-living pressures, arguing that his economic agenda has provided relief to working families and should continue in a second term.

The release described rising rent, grocery bills and stagnant pay as immediate concerns for voters. Peniamina said families “feel” the financial strain each week and presented affordability as a central contrast between his campaign and his opponents.

“You feel it every week. The squeeze. Your rent goes up. Your grocery bill climbs. Your paycheck stays the same,” Peniamina said in the statement. He said he had raised the minimum wage, capped rent increases, limited monthly insulin costs and reduced prescription-drug prices.

The release listed a $17-per-hour minimum wage, indexed to inflation, among the administration’s policy accomplishments. It also cited rent caps intended to protect tenants from what the campaign called price gouging and unchecked rent increases.

On health care, Peniamina’s release said insulin costs had been capped at $35 a month and that Medicare had been allowed to negotiate prescription-drug prices. The statement also pointed to the closing of tax loopholes for billionaires and corporations as part of a broader “tax fairness” agenda.

The press release did not provide further details on the scope, implementation dates or measured effects of the policies it cited. It also did not identify specific proposals opponents would pursue.

Peniamina accused “the other side” of seeking to reverse his policies while cutting Medicare and Social Security and providing tax breaks to billionaires. Those claims were presented in the campaign statement and were not accompanied by citations or responses from opponents.

“They want to cut Medicare. They want to gut Social Security. They want to give tax breaks to billionaires while working families struggle,” Peniamina said. “That’s not who we are. That’s not who we will become.”

The message continues Peniamina’s recent focus on affordability. His prior campaign releases have addressed an “Affordability Agenda” and inflation pressures facing small businesses, making household expenses a recurring theme in the final stretch before the election.

Cost of living remains a high-salience political issue amid a tense and polarized national climate. Peniamina’s statement sought to frame the election around practical household costs while linking his opponents to potential changes in retirement and health-care programs.

In his closing remarks, Peniamina said he would continue pursuing lower costs for working families if returned to office. “I will never stop fighting to lower costs for working families,” he said. “Not because it’s politically popular — because it’s the right thing to do.”