A lot of people seem convinced that gas prices are no longer an issue that will hurt Democratic candidates in the midterms.
“Gas prices have plummeted,” writes The New Republic. “It appears that gasoline prices may have peaked too soon to remain the lethal campaign weapon for Republicans that they seemed to be a month ago,” declares Politico. Bloomberg concludes that, “Drop in Gasoline Prices Blunts GOP Weapon Ahead of Midterms.”
Yes, gas prices are a dollar and change lower than their midsummer record-high prices. But does the average American no longer consider gas expensive? Have prices come down enough to reach a level where the likely voters don’t think of gas prices as unusually high anymore?
The national average for a gallon of regular gas, according to the American Automobile Association, is currently $3.87 — which is thankfully lower than the $5.01 record set in June. But a year ago, the national average was $3.15. We’ll throw out 2020 as an odd year because of the pandemic, but in late August 2019 the national average was $2.59; in late August 2018, the national average was $2.82; and in late August 2017, the national average was $2.36. Most consumers are used to paying somewhere between two and three dollars per gallon; they’re not going to be all that happy paying close to four dollars per gallon.
Yesterday in northern Virginia, I filled up my tank at $3.99 per gallon, just a bit above the national average. That is no doubt better than the $5 per gallon I was paying in mid June, but it’s not a good price, or one that makes me feel like our country’s energy policies, discouraging domestic fossil-fuel production, make sense.
For what it’s worth, YouGov asked 1,500 U.S. adults what they expected U.S. gas prices to be six months from now, and 36 percent said they expected gas prices to be higher, 24 percent expected them to be the same, 29 percent said they expected them to be lower, and 11 percent said they didn’t know.
This looks like yet another case of media voices who prefer Democrats choosing to see what they want to see.