Showing posts with label fossil fools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fossil fools. Show all posts

Thursday, August 13, 2026

Gas prices hit all-time August high, tanking GOP’s midterm chances

Gas prices hit all-time August high, tanking GOP’s midterm chances

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/13/800083555/business-and-economy/gas-prices-hit-all-time-august-high-tanking-gops-midterm-chances/ 

Gas prices hit all-time August high, tanking GOP’s midterm chances

by Emily Singer
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Gas prices are displayed electronically at QT gasoline station, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Greenwood Village, Colo.
Gas prices are displayed electronically at QT gasoline station on Aug in Greenwood Village, Colorado.AP

The average price per gallon of gas in the United States climbed back over $4 on Wednesday, according to data from GasBuddy, as the wars in Iran and Ukraine continue to wreak havoc on energy prices.

That is the highest price gas has been at this point in the year, according to GasBuddy gas price tracker Patrick De Haan, who in a post on X said, “the national average has never been above $4/gal after Aug. 12 in any previous year—ever.”

And that is terrible news for the GOP, with the elevated prices coming as the midterm elections enter the home stretch, with early voting slated to start in a little more than a month in a handful of states.

“Now is when voters’ minds about the economy are starting to solidify and gas prices are a huge driver of that,” Doug Heye, a GOP strategist and former Republican National Committee spokesman, told Politico on Monday. 

A cartoon by Pedro Molina showing a gauge of U.S. ammo in Trump's war in Iran, with it nearly empty.
Pedro Molina/Tribune Content Agency

Indeed, gas prices are intricately linked to presidential approval, which in turn impacts the president’s party in a midterm election. 

In fact, as gas prices climb thanks to his war in Iran, President Donald Trump’s approval is now at its lowest level of either term, according to The New York Times’ tracker. Trump’s approval currently stands at an abysmal 37% in the Times’ average, with his disapproval at a stunningly high 60%. That -22% approval rating is far worse than the -11% it stood at in 2018, before his first midterm election that ended up leading to a Democratic wave.

Worse still for Republicans is that there’s no sign that gas prices will meaningfully decline in the near future.

Trump is struggling to end the boondoggle of a war he started in Iran, which has virtually shut off the flow of oil and other refined petroleum products from the Middle East, leading to supply shortages that have spiked the price of gasoline.

Iran has insisted it will not allow traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to resume until the U.S. meets all of its demands—including a lifting of sanctions and allowing it to control the Strait of Hormuz. That would amount to an embarrassing loss for Trump as well as global security.

Related | Iran war keeps dashing GOP’s midterm hopes

However, a continued stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz—or even an escalation of his unpopular war to force a reopening of the oil passageway—would be even more politically perilous for Trump and the GOP, as elevated gas prices are a disaster for the party in power.

High gas prices sparked by the war in Iran are already making their way into Democratic attack ads.

“Spending like DRUNKEN sailors,” a narrator in a House Majority PAC ad against vulnerable Wisconsin GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden says. “Blowing America’s budget with every bomb blast overseas. Derrick Van Orden voted for it all. As the war drives gas and grocery prices through the roof. Derrick Van Orden, BILLIONS on bombs. Everyday Wisconsinites, drowning in bills and high prices.”

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🚨NEW @HouseForward ad in #WI03🚨

Spending like DRUNKEN sailors.

Blowing America's budget with every bomb blast overseas.

Derrick Van Orden voted for it all.

As the war drives gas and grocery prices through the roof.

Derrick Van Orden, BILLIONS on bombs. pic.twitter.com/CBIYDwMJCB— CJ Warnke (@cjwarnke) August 12, 2026

That line of attack is potent, and why Democrats are feeling good about their chances in November. 

And it’s why Republicans are desperately searching for a way to change their fortunes, even resorting to a smear campaign against former public health official Anthony Fauci and lying to scare voters into believing Democrats are communists.

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  1. Comment by stephyc4312.

    The people either say it was higher under Biden or gas prices aren't the president's fault are unserious people. While Biden was president they made it solely his fault. Because today August 2026, it is Trump's fault.

  2. Comment by Crusier.

    And add a buck for Washington state. Its down to $5.09 yesterday.

  3. Comment by SRDIabroad.

    Short, to point, ads that tie everything to peoples' standard of living and the price of a gallon is only just one. It includes the US SS murderers, insane economic lurches (tariffs, for one), constant attacks on anyone non-white or otherwise constitute the "other". Hell, resurrect "are you better off than you were 4 years' ago?" as a campaign meme. It worked before and it gets to the point without getting into the normal, "explain everything" mantras the Democrats excel at doing - especially progressives - only surpassed by attacking one's own. I am flying home to vote because I don't trust the mail, loath Trumpisites (that'll get me flagged - we don't want to demean the enemy on DK) and want to make sure my vote is counted. That's a couple of thousand but worth it to me. Whatever it takes.

  4. Comment by BobRR.

    I'm lucky that I need less than a tank of gasoline per month. At my most selfish I'm hoping it goes to $10 a gallon before the election, but that would harm a lot of good people as well as bad.

  5. Comment by BullPucky.

    All i can say is August is not November .

    The american voter has a very short memory .

    If gas dropped to what it was in Feburary i doubt it would be a goad any longer .

    • Reply by feasul.

      It is hard to imagine a way for gas prices to drop much anytime soon. Even if Iran fully opened the strait of Hormuz and the Houthis stopped all their attacks, it would take some time for supplies to get back to where they were a year ago. Infrastructure has been damaged. Reserves have been drained. Production can't be ramped up and down too quickly. Ships take time to move into position. The estimates I have seen say prices will take 6-12 months to normalize after all the wars stop and the oil producers can go back to normal operations.

  6. Comment by Guanofeo Hammertoe.

    “I don’t worry about anything, to be honest,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday night. “Whatever it is — you know my attitude? Whatever.”

    This needs to be on a billboard along the highway in every major city.

  7. Comment by mjw51295.

    Here's hoping. Here is reconfirming my brining a 1st time voter to the polls with me and voting early. Here is reconfirming to offer to drive folks to the polls on Election Day.

    • Reply by BobRR.

      ❤️

  8. Comment by JOHN PHKNG ZOIDBERG.

    "The minds of voters are starting to solidify" makes it sound like the American voters heads are filled with lime jello.

    That's a fair assessment mind you, I'm just struck by the visual.

    • Reply by BobRR.

      LOL. It solidifies faster with ICE.

    • Reply by SAGG.

      I see what you did there! 😆

  9. Comment by pasuburbdem1.

    Has anyone asked Maine's Platner why he does not transfer the millions in his campaign account to his successor Maine Dem Senate nominee Troy Jackson?

    Bernie - you asked all of us to send money to Platner - now nudge (or shame) Platner into transferring those contributions to the current Dem nominee.

    • Reply by BobRR.

      I've read that Platner was left with $1.7 million after he left the race. It's being used, we are told, to pay off campaign debts.

  10. Comment by sfg1.

    cant imagine why anyone would think DJT had this all planned...except the plan to listen to Bibi. didnt that turn out well? these men (?) are ideologues...not practical. and they seem to forget that folks buy gas ONCE A WEEK !!! turn the knife !!!

  11. Comment by Paul C.

    Gas prices in NE Ohio hit $5 for 89 octane. This is a potential bellwether state. You wanna bet guys commuting in pickups that get 22 mpg and have 20 gallon tanks aren't fuming?

    By the way, gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton is going to lose if she doesn't start hitting back against constant attack ads making her look like a drunken derelict fool. This is an exact replay of how they beat Sherrod Brown last time.

    • Reply by allendem.

      They beat Sherrod with inflation, immigration and trans. Every ad I heard was about one of those three. Since they can't run immigration anymore, it's communism. Inflation has been replaced by fraud allowed by Democrats. Trans is still good.

    • Reply by Paul C.

      Well, that is not what I saw every time I opened a new program on TV. Endless saturation attacks on him being a Frankenstein monster whose real constituents were child molesters or something like that, all done in black and green grainy images. Constant, months on end, with no response at all from Brown.

      Now I am seeing the exact same pattern with Acton, and, again, no response at all.

    • Reply by Paul C.

      And this is against a guy no one knows, Ramajamma, who she should have been defining for months now, but nothing. She must want to lose.

  12. Comment by rfhusker.

    People do not realize that the cost of a gallon of gasoline is actually lower than it would be if it wasn’t higher under Biden and then significantly lowered under Trump, before it became arguably fractionally higher again because it was so significantly high under Biden that no one could afford it then.

    However, even though it’s arguably fractionally higher, the booming economy under the Big Beautiful Bill has allowed people to afford the cost of lower gasoline prices than what we endured during the Biden years. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Signed:

    Kevin Hassett; Scott Bissent; J.D. Vance; Sean Duffy; Howard Nutlick; Chris Wright; Russ Vought; Doug Burgum, and the mainstream media

    Addendum: You had better believe this or you will face consequences, you commie. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Signed:

    Todd Blanche; Markwayne Mullin; Pete Hegseth; and the mainstream media

    Addendum II: What they said. Signed, 6 members of SCOTUS

  13. Comment by Harvey Manfrenjensenden.

    Many people are saying that gas is only $1.99 per gallon in some places. I think it's that cheap in Kansifornia and perhaps in a few stations in Texhampshire.

    • Reply by rfhusker.

      The cost of a gallon of gasoline is the same but you get a free Trump Bible for only an $85 handling charge in Oklahomistan.

    • Reply by Paul C.

      $1.99 is what MAGA was absolutely convinced gas prices would be immediately after Trump took office. I talked to one at Menards before the election, a retired man looking for the cheapest suet he could find, talking with a hidden anger in his voice. I tried to tell him that wouldn't happen but he was absolutely convinced it was a done deal.

    • Reply by sfg1.

      just bought some yesterday: Mountain View, Ca google hq and the cheapest is 5.23. surely the best way to get votes !!!

    • Reply by MessagingMatters.

      That's totally true about the price of covfefe from Beckibeckistan.

    • Reply by BobRR.

      It's about $5.60 in Hawaii (which is frequently lower than California because of California's gas taxes). Yesterday there was a traffic jam of cars trying to get to one station which probably had a lower price.

    • Reply by Getting1.

      The only way I could think of gas being cheaper is if there using a grocery loyalty card at the grocery store's own gas station. That's what I do. You get a point for each dollar you spend on your grocery bill, so I buy my groceries on Fridays so that I can get 4x or 5x the fuel points on my card. On the following month, I can use the card to get 10¢ off for every 10 points on my card up to a dollar off. If we know that we are going to be using more gas the following month, we will buy some gift cards to a store where we will spend it on the thing we need, since you also get points on gift cards. We usually have one or two trips a month to the gas station depending on how much mowing, whether we've got to run the generator or if I do a lot of volunteering, then it'll be equal to two tanks of gas that month.

  14. Comment by Whatsnuts.

    The GOP attacks everyone and everything except Russia and fascism.

  15. Comment by bopamole.

    Will the high price of gas improve Dems' fortunes in November? Perhaps, but let's not be stupid. It will take getting the votes of folks who cannot abide the ICE killings, or huge tax cuts for the wealthy, or the war in Iran, or the incompetence and ALL the illegal and immoral shit they are doing. And we need to keep reminding people of all of it, and not relying on a single issue that absolutely fails to reflect what it is we are truly fighting. We are literally fighting for democracy, and we need to pound that message home as well.

    • Reply by Guanofeo Hammertoe.

      “I don’t worry about anything, to be honest,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday night. “Whatever it is — you know my attitude? Whatever.”

      This needs to be on a billboard along the highway in every major city.

    • Reply by MessagingMatters.

      “Not even a little bit. … I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations, I don’t think about anybody.” --Trump to WH reporters this past May

  16. Comment by Whatsnuts.

    Our national debt is outpacing our GDP. We don't have a budget problem, we have a values and a corruption problem. Notice how the GOP never brings up the national debt anymore.

    • Reply by amoverton.

      "Notice how the GOP never brings up the national debt anymore."

      Why aren't Democrats? At least bring up the hypocrisy. Do it as relentlessly as Republicans have brought it up as a cudgel against us in the past. It should be a "front of mind" exercise.

      Our positive messages don't awaken their survival instincts in ways that make them salient. We know this subject is something they've been trained to respond to in a Pavlovian manner. Why aren't we using it in the same kind of phantasmagorical way that they would? We should not just be talking about it in measured tones. We should be exclaiming it in the kind of alarmist tones they use to rile up their base and doing it 24/7.

    • Reply by Whatsnuts.

      The fact that Democrats never use such obvious arguments to their full advantage to me, is telling. And it's gone on for far to long. This is the Democratic party's last chance to get this right or many people including myself will move on.

    • Reply by amoverton.

      Where to?

    • Reply by Leeb29.

      If your "moving on" involves not voting for Democrats, I find that strategy problematic.

    • Reply by Whatsnuts.

      I've been fighting for and with Democrats for over forty years. It's time the party get's their act together instead of letting Republicans distract us with buzz words. We need to stop chasing words like woke, and commie and marxist and socialist and start defining workable policies that benefit everyone in our society and get's the billionaires and their corruption under control.

    • Reply by Throw The Bums Out.

      What makes you think voting for Democrats will even be possible if they don't "get it right" in 2026 and 2028?

  17. Comment by Milwrob.

    As we sit the strategic reserves of the United States are at or near historic lows. Yet we continue to export oil, gee I wonder if the oil companies are making record profits? (Yes they are) Many large companies are getting tariff rebates; your not. Have they lowered prices ~ of course not. Through market manipulation the West Texas Intermediate price has remained unusally low for the circumstances. That will not go on forever.

    If you think prices are bad now...buckle up buttercup they are going to get worse! Seventy seven million stupid people voted and continue to support this and all of us have to pay for it. You will learn what those behind suffered to learn ~ many of those at the top want more. Causing you pain or stealing from you does not concern them. Springsteen: "All men wanna be rich, Rich men wanna be king and the king aint satisified til he rules everything."

    “‘We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately.’ So get to it, and make it a team effort. I don’t trust the work that you do alone.” Benjamin Franklin

    • Reply by spacecadet1.

      But if the oil companies are making record profits now can they afford to cut prices and eat a temporary loss in October to throw the election to the Republicans?

    • Reply by Milwrob.

      Well I have lived through more than one period of gouging by the oil companies and they all have this in common: prices go up quickly and come back slowly. This has happened no matter the party in power.

    • Reply by MessagingMatters.

      I think the Trump & Lackeys strategy is to try to keep those gas prices artificially lower until just after the elections when they will spike even more. But Trump's failed Iran war of choice is getting in the way. So are the grocery stores, restaurants, airlines etc., who are also making us pay much more. I'm imagining Trump as the captain on the Titanic: "We have the iceberg under control. It's actually a very small iceberg. It's only 15 feet high, and in a couple of days it will be down close to zero." And speaking of iceberg, how about that lettuce?

  18. Comment by BlueLine64.

    In spite of all the republican caused chaos I continue to hear Democrats whinging about media not reporting on the conservative movement's monumental failures. A bunch of pampered privileged infotainment millionaires who live in a provincial bubble aren't going to delineate the concerns of a populous that lacks the means to invite them to a cocktail party at rooftop penthouse. Democratic candidates need to stay focused, show some spine, and take it straight to the billionaires. Abdul El-Sayed and AOC get this.

  19. Comment by javax2.

    The price of gas was never something I worried about, even when I was a broke young man scraping together change just to get enough gas to make it to work. Now that I’m retired, I only drive a few miles a couple of days a week, but when I do fill up, I can’t help but say, “Damn.” I can only imagine that folks with long commutes, kids, jobs, and tight fuel budgets are doing a whole lot more cussin' than I am.

    • Reply by Whatsnuts.

      Maybe they should do less cussing and more voting.

    • Reply by jayden.

      I do the same when buying groceries. If the receipt is high for me, I can only imagine what families are dealing with at checkout. Lots of mac and cheese or ramen for kids today?

    • Reply by javax2.

      I saw a dad with 4 sons, one a toddler and the rest growing up fast. in Walmart grocery shopping last week. His basket was filled with survival.

      yeah

    • Reply by Bottomleftcorner.

      Oh, God…Yes!

    • Reply by Harvey Manfrenjensenden.

      There was a time when I drove 50,000 miles per year while self-employed and gas prices mattered a lot. I work at home now and I buy a tank a month at best.

      Still, we're a nation that hasn't figured out mass transit, so for a lot of people, the price of gas is a big freaking deal.

  20. Comment by carstonio.

    My contrarian view? The effect of gas prices on votes isn’t as simple as that. A voter who would choose a challenger whose positions and ideologies are mostly the opposite, over an incumbent whose positions mostly match the voter’s, simply because gas is $4 instead of $2.75? There are probably only a dozen people like that. And someone who might believe that switching presidents would reduce gas prices, is so disinterested in politics that they don’t bother voting in the first place. No, gas prices and inflation generally don’t work to sway votes on their own. Voters tend to operate according to how they perceive their identity and their place in the country. They use prices as rationalizations for how they wanted to vote in the first place. If they see the incumbent’s policies or current social trends as threatening to their identity, the prices help galvanize their opposition.

    • Reply by Paul C.

      Agree with all but your first sentence. Rest assured they really get angry when they see prices going up all across the board, especially consumables that they are faced with every day. It's a constant reminder of the fear they live under of sinking into poverty. That is a frightening way to live.

    • Reply by amoverton.

      My only thought is that if that had been sufficient, we wouldn't have Trump in power now,

    • Reply by Paul C.

      I didn't say they weren't low information voters. Most people who are undecided at this point are low info voters.

      These are not the people at the front of the Bell curve defining trends. These are people at the back who are looking for someone to follow. This is why I keep hammering away at the need for strong leadership and strong messaging. Just a shift in wind direction is all it takes for a frighteningly large percentage of the population to be moved.

    • Reply by MessagingMatters.

      Donald Trump didn't think so in 2024. He ran quite a bit against inflation happening on Biden's watch. E.g.: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/10/trump-slams-biden-for-inflation-after-hotter-than-expected-cpi-report.html Recall those "I did that" stickers with Biden's picture on gas pumps.

      I think this brings up an additional problem for Trump and by extension the Republicans running for election: not only is inflation persistent right now, Trump had specifically promised to lower it. In that regard, note that when President Biden left office, inflation was 3%. It has gone up, not down, under Trump. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/

    • Reply by carstonio.

      Trump’s spin on inflation wasn’t an attempt to appeal through empathy. He was merely promoting himself as the supposed genius who can fix the problem, with Biden and everyone else as incompetents. He was speaking mostly to people who already believed to some degree that he was their savior, or who shared his repulsive values.

    • Reply by carstonio.

      Again, that sounds insulting, because only children or emotionally immature adults flail blindly like that.

    • Reply by carstonio.

      Totally agree with your strategy.

    • Reply by BobRR.

      Democratic turnout in the primaries has been a LOT more than 20% and it will be very high in November. I don't know where 20% comes from. More like over 70%.

    • Reply by Bottomleftcorner.

      We are still in primary season this year. In my county, turnout was 35 percent a couple of weeks ago. Still, Bob, I was not referring to this cycle, but our historical performance. That is why I also linked an article about the historical impact of gasoline prices on the number of house seats lost when gas prices surged below my original post.

      Press the primary button for the truth.

      https://statesunited.org/resources/voter-turnout-since-2000/

      States United Democracy Center
      Voter Turnout in American Elections Since 2000
      When more citizens vote, our elected representatives are more likely to truly reflect the people they’re meant to serve.

    • Reply by Bottomleftcorner.

      Insulting or not that is what is happening.

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