Gas, Iran and the Household Bill That Decided the Midterms

Trump and Vance both said the war's fuel shock hurt Republicans. AAA and CNBC put Election Day gasoline near record midterm highs. Here is what the numbers say — and what markets and consumers were still digesting Thursday.

By Clara Hughes

The midterms were not an abstraction about committees and maps. They were a referendum on what it cost to drive to work. U.S. drivers paid about $4.15 for an average gallon of regular gasoline on Election Day, "the highest of any midterm or presidential election day since at least 2000," according to AAA as reported by CNBC on Nov. 4. GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan told CNBC that heading into an election with prices "that on Election Day have never been higher" produces "a lot of frustration from consumers." CNBC also reported gasoline had surged about 37% over the past year as the Middle East conflict disrupted the global crude trade. President Trump and Vice President JD Vance both put the fuel shock at the center of the postmortem. Trump told Fox News the Iran war "drove the