The winding down of the war in Iran may lead to gas prices going down. But Democrats think that they can still hit President Donald Trump on the soaring cost of living.
On Thursday, AAA reported that the average cost of a regular gallon of gas was $3.99. This came after the war in Iran caused gas prices to blow through the roof and well past $4 a gallon. Iran’s decision to close off the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil travels, caused the increase. On Sunday, as Trump announced the end of hostilities, he said “Let the oil flow!”
But Senate Democrats are hoping people remember who caused gas prices to rise in the first place.
“People are stressed out,” Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia told The Independent. “People don’t forget what the price of gas was on February 27 and they know how much more they’re paying now.”
But Democrats pointed out that gas prices are only one part of the affordability issue.
“I’m glad that gas is down for all Americans, because I don’t want Americans to be suffering because of the president’s stupid decisions about going to war,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), told The Independent. “But number two, affordability is not just gas, electricity prices, being able to buy a home, being able to buy food – everything’s expensive.”
Gallego was one of a handful of Democrats who won his Senate race in 2024 despite the fact that Trump won the electoral votes in his state. Trump largely won in 2024 because of rising gas and grocery prices that came as the world recovered from the worst days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But since Trump returned to office, he has enacted multiple policies that caused prices to increase. Last year, he put in place a series of tariffs, which caused prices to jump, as did the war in Iran.
Trump said this week that prices were not a problem and blamed Democrats for what he called a “made-up” affordability crisis. Last week, he baffled many when he said that “I love the inflation” when the latest Consumer Price Index report showed that inflation jumped 4.2 percent year-over-year in May.
“I don’t understand that,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Independent last week when asked about the president’s comments. Trump endorsed Cornyn’s Republican primary opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is now running against Democratic state legislator James Talarico.
This week, Lone Star Rising PAC, a pro-Talarico super PAC, released an ad in Spanish to play during the World Cup that blames Trump and Paxton for rising inflation for everything from gas to beer to the price of soccer tickets.
Democrats are also focusing heavily on childcare. This week, they released their agenda for combating the high price of child care.
“Trump says we can’t afford child care,” Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement. “The truth is we can’t afford to ignore child care.”
Murray borrowed words from the president when he said in April, during the war, “It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare — all these individual things.”
Democrats currently only have 47 seats in the Senate and hope to flip not just Texas, but also seats in North Carolina, Maine, Alaska and Ohio.
In addition, Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, the sole Democrat running for re-election in a state Trump won in 2024 has stayed relentlessly on message. Over the weekend, Trump endorsed Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) to be the Republican nominee to challenge Ossoff. Collins won the primary on Tuesday.
This week, Trump gave the Democratic incumbent the nickname “Os(jerk!)off,” which led to Ossoff repeatedly hitting the president on affordability in an interview with TMZ.
“He is a disgraced president, humiliated on the world stage by his failed war, raking in billions for himself and his family while he makes you pay more for gas, for groceries and for health care,” he said.
