This Election Day, remember which party ran against EVs and tethered us all to the gas pump

It’s the midterms! Here’s a fun fact for you as you head to the polls: Gas prices today are the highest ever recorded for a US Election Day.

The national average for a gallon of gasoline is $4.12 and $6.28 for a gallon of diesel, according to GasBuddy. Meanwhile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is maintained by the US Department of Energy as a safeguard during energy crises, is down to 282.2 million barrels of crude, the lowest level in 44 years.

Gas prices, along with other essential cost-of-living items, are certainly top of mind for many voters this election cycle. And perhaps many will also remember which political party ran on a campaign message of ending the fictional “EV mandate” and “drill, baby, drill.”

For the past two years, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have made gutting EV incentives, freezing charging infrastructure funding, and rolling back fuel economy standards a hallmark of their tenure in power. As a result, EV sales plummeted in the US, ensuring that Americans would stay indefinitely shackled to fossil fuels for years to come. For Trump, it was fulfilling a promise he made during the 2024 campaign. And for his donors from the oil and gas industry, it was money well spent.

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Most voters might not have cared that much. After all, skepticism toward EVs was already high, driven by premium prices and lingering charging anxiety. But when Trump went to war with Iran, the resulting surge in gas prices sent Americans scrambling for cheaper ways to get around. Many turned to hybrid and electric vehicles as a solution — only to find vehicle prices were still higher than average, with no federal incentive to help defray the costs. Dealerships saw a surge of foot traffic from drivers who were skeptical of battery-powered cars, now desperate for anything that ran on a plug or a hybrid motor.

While automakers had made strides toward cheaper EVs, the average transaction price still hovered well over $50,000. But the incentive that once helped close that gap — the $7,500 federal clean vehicle tax credit, applied instantly at the point of sale — was gone. The subsidies had been systematically dismantled or left to lapse under the banner of fiscal discipline and anti-green populism.

Here is the real irony of this election. Republicans spent years painting electric cars as an out-of-touch, liberal fad, doing everything they could to kill tax credits and charging programs. They rolled back fuel economy standards that would have forced automakers to build more fuel-efficient powertrains, claiming they were saving everyday drivers from expensive technology they didn’t want.

Instead, they took away an important tool that could have protected family budgets from a global energy crisis. Electricity is made right here at home; its price doesn’t spike every time conflict breaks out in the Middle East. But because Republicans treated EVs like a partisan culture war, millions of Americans are stuck standing at the pump, watching the price roll higher.

Even if Democrats win back Congress, don’t expect them to bring back the Biden-era EV tax credits. The political fight over what kind of car people drive is probably stuck. At the same time, major car companies are backing Trump’s push in court to roll back strict fuel-economy rules. Electric cars aren’t disappearing, but they now have to stand on their own two feet. Companies like General Motors and Ford do have plans to make them more affordable, as long as the government keeps blocking cheap Chinese models from entering the market.

In the end, Trump won his culture war against the electric car. Automakers retreated, subsidies vanished, and the traditional combustion engine was saved from the bureaucrats. But victories have price tags. And as voters step into the booth with a $4 gallon of gas on their minds, they might finally realize what was traded away: the simple freedom to drive past the pump and never look back.