Washington, DC – Congressional Republicans spent years railing against higher gas prices and expressed concern about how cost increases were hurting their constituents. But their actions lately tell a very different story. Nearly every Republican in Congress voted to support the war in Iran despite the fact that they knew this conflict was causing a major spike in gas prices. Now, many of these same Washington Republicans have gone radio silent on the issue. One even stated that it was, “absolutely worth it” to raise gas prices for a war in Iran, and another said that their critics should, “grow a stronger spine.”
“Congressional Republicans’ silence on skyrocketing gas prices tells you everything you need to know about where their priorities are,” said Unrig Our Economy Campaign Director Leor Tal. “Republicans in Washington knew that voting to support the Iran War could spike gas prices, yet they supported it anyway. They saw the harm that their cuts to Medicaid and SNAP could have, and they still passed a tax law that hurts working families. Clearly, Republicans in Congress haven’t stopped putting Donald Trump and their billionaire buddies over the working families they are supposed to represent.”
NOTUS: Republicans Don’t Want to Talk About Gas Prices Anymore
Key Points:
- The same party that spent years pinning every penny increase at the pump on former President Joe Biden is now scrambling to explain why prices have surged to their highest level in years.
- Gas prices have surged nearly 50% amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. The response from congressional Republicans has been a study in spin.
- Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican facing a tough reelection race, had declared in a 2024 campaign ad that “housing, car payments, gas — the cost of everything has gone through the roof.” By January 2026, he was writing op-eds crediting Washington with bringing gas prices down. When CNN asked him in March whether higher prices were worth the Iran war, he said they were “absolutely worth it.”
- Not all Republicans have been so vocal in their reversal, with some just simply going silent. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who ran ads warning that “food, gas, medicine, it all costs more,” in 2024 has said essentially nothing about gas prices since the war began.
- Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and David Valadao, both of whom ran promising “lower gas prices” messaging in 2024, have offered little detail on the issue since.
- Rep. Derrick Van Orden, whose 2024 message centered on “gas, groceries, and grandkids,” warned energy producers on Fox Business in March that “there’s a difference between profiting and profiteering.”
- Rep. Zach Nunn, whose 2024 ads blamed “Biden-Harris inflation” for making gas and groceries more expensive, acknowledged on Fox News in March that prices are “right back to exactly where they were in the last year of the Biden administration.” His advice to anyone who wanted to make that a political issue: “Grow a stronger spine.”
- Some also believe the gas price debate has allowed the party to pivot back to the tax cuts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year, which Republican leaders have been trying to sell for almost a full year.
To learn more about the campaign, visit UnrigOurEconomy.com or contact press@unrigoureconomy.com
###
About Unrig Our Economy
Unrig Our Economy is a national campaign to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people. We know that when the middle class does well, all of us do well — which is why we’re fighting on behalf of working Americans and holding corporations, their wealthy executives, and the politicians who enable them accountable.