Paying Too Much for Energy? Dems Say Blame the GOPPlus: Redrawing more maps for 2026, and rewriting calendars for 2028.
Lauren Egan
Aug 24, 2025
A power-generating wind turbine towers over the rural landscape in July 2025 near Pomeroy, Iowa. The Republican “Big Beautiful Bill” eliminated tax credits that have helped to spur the growth of wind and solar energy production. (Iowa has more wind turbines than any other state but Texas, which is more than four times its geographic size.) (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
EARLIER THIS YEAR when Democratic officials began to strategize about the midterm elections, there was widespread agreement that their message should emphasize rising costs
. In the Democratic campaign committees and up and down the halls of Congress, the consensus was that the party should focus relentlessly on Donald Trump’s tariffs and the GOP’s Medicaid cuts.
But that focus has started to shift.
High prices are still the main theme, and Medicaid cuts and tariffs will continue to be an important component of Democrats’ midterms argument. But the party increasingly sees political opportunity in centering its message on rising energy prices. As electricity bills are spiking around the country—rising twice as fast as the rate of inflation—Democrats have started to weave the issue into more of their ads and talking points, believing it’s an effective way to tar a president who reneged on his commitment to lower prices.
Most of the Democratic consultants and lawmakers that I spoke to for this newsletter said that energy prices are easier to talk about on the campaign trail than tariffs (especially when some Democrats have gotten tripped up talking about the merits of “targeted tariffs”). Soaring energy bills will also be of interest to a wider audience than, say, Trump’s Medicaid cuts, as energy prices affect nearly all Americans. And the sense is that this issue is only going to become more pressing: Energy is expected to keep getting more expensive before next November.
Plus, Democrats believe, it’s fairly straightforward to explain why Republicans are to blame.
“They ran on this platform of lowering costs. And Trump and Republicans in Congress then passed legislation that will increase costs across the board,” said Sara Schreiber, the senior vice president of campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters, which recently launched a $4 million push in swing states on the GOP budget law. “It’s an intuitive thing. You’re thinking about your electric bill all year round.”
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A few other recent efforts:
- This month, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee ran digital ads focusing on rising energy costs. It has also been more aggressive about amplifying local coverage of spiking costs.
- Clean Energy for America, an advocacy group, recently ran billboard ads in swing districts going after Republican House members who “just voted to raise your electricity bill.”
- Climate Power, a Democratic-aligned advocacy organization, is airing an ad blaming Trump for higher energy costs.
- And the Democratic National Committee has also been focusing on the issue, with plans to have former Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (who now works at Climate Power) on their YouTube show this week to highlight the topic.
A digital billboard that Climate Power ran targeting the GOP incumbent in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District.
Beyond the 2026 midterms, rising energy costs also present Democrats and climate groups with an opportunity to hit reset on the issue. For much of the last quarter-century, from the days of Al Gore through the debates over the carbon tax, the party has struggled to talk about climate change without using alarmist rhetoric that feels divorced from most voters’ focus on the dollars and cents of their energy bills. Efforts from lawmakers and climate advocates to center the conversation on pocketbook issues haven’t generally been effective, leaving Democrats vulnerable to GOP attacks. But there’s growing hope that will change this election cycle.
“It is critical to talk about climate change in an economic frame,” said Christina Polizzi, a spokesperson for Climate Power. “It is a political liability for Republicans to directly raise costs on Americans across the country, and for Donald Trump to say, ‘Hey, you’re on your own if an extreme weather event comes to your town.’”
Even before the Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” was signed into law, energy prices were rising in part due to new data centers for cryptocurrencies and AI. But the bill compounded that issue by stripping away Biden-era federal tax credits for cheaper renewable energy like wind and solar. Recent analyses found that the new law could increase the average family’s energy bill by as much as $400 per year within a decade.
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THERE ARE CERTAIN STATES and congressional districts where Democrats believe focusing on energy costs could be particularly beneficial. Energy prices have already become a key issue in the governor’s race in Virginia, which is home to dozens of energy-guzzling data centers. Plus, the argument could be more potent in red states that will lose clean-energy jobs under the new law as well as states with more extreme climates that make voters especially vulnerable to increased prices. JoAnna Mendoza, a retired Marine who is running in the Democratic primary for the chance to challenge Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani in Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, has focused a lot of her campaign messaging so far on rising energy bills.
“In Arizona, it is hot as hell. It is so freaking hot, it’s triple digits. AC is on nonstop. Just last month, I had a $400 bill and I know I’m not alone,” Mendoza said in a phone interview. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Republican, an independent, a Democrat, or you don’t follow party politics at all—you’re going to feel it in your pocketbook.”
In a social media post last week, Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego described it as a matter of life or death: “Across the country electricity prices are rising twice as fast as inflation. Families already stretched thin can’t afford it. And in Arizona in August, this isn’t just about comfort. It’s about survival.”
Most Democratic officials that I spoke with last week said that the fact that Republicans were already acting anxious and attempting to blame this problem on past Democratic administrations was a sign that Democrats had landed on a winning issue.
Listen, for example, to how Donald Trump’s energy secretary, Chris Wright, talks about the blame game. “The momentum of the Obama-Biden policies, for sure that destruction is going to continue in the coming years,” the former fracking CEO said in an interview last week with Politico. “That momentum is pushing prices up right now. And who’s going to get blamed for it? We’re going to get blamed because we’re in office.”
Democrats are counting on that. |
