North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein on Friday signed a law suspending the state’s tax on gasoline and diesel fuel — legislation aimed at lowering prices that have remained elevated since President Donald Trump launched an attack on Iran earlier this year.
The measure suspends the state’s 41-cents-per-gallon gas tax until Nov. 30 and is expected to cost the state more than $350 million in money that typically goes toward the state Department of Transportation for road projects. The legislation keeps the DOT’s budget whole by transferring money from the state’s savings of roughly $11 billion.
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“Grocery bills are going up. Power bills are going up, healthcare bills are going up, and thanks to the Trump administration’s disastrous war of choice against Iran, gas prices are sky high,” Stein said. “So when we have a chance to bring down costs for families, we need to take it.”
Stein’s move comes days after the North Carolina General Assembly’s GOP leadership introduced the bill, which was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. State lawmakers had taken a break from legislative activities when Republican legislative leaders on Oct. 3 announced a special session to address constituent concerns about high gas prices: “They need real relief, and they need it now,” Senate leader Phil Berger wrote on social media.
House Speaker Destin Hall, R-Caldwell, said the gas tax suspension was possible because the Republican-controlled General Assembly enacted fiscally-conservative state spending plans over the years.
“Years of responsible budgeting have put North Carolina in a position to provide meaningful relief when families need it most, and pausing fuel taxes is another way House Republicans are working to make our state more affordable for everyone,” Hall said in a statement after Stein signed the bill.
The law goes into effect Saturday, but motorists probably won’t see big price drops immediately. Gas stations still have fuel on hand that they paid taxes on, so it could be days or weeks until stations buy the new, cheaper fuel that would become available with the tax breaks.
While the law enjoys bipartisan support, Democrats have accused Republicans of suspending the gas tax not only to save North Carolinians money — but also to save Republicans’ reelection efforts. Stein on Friday pointed to the timing of the special legislative session and the temporary nature of the tax suspension.
“Taking action four weeks before an election is not enough. This law cannot be the end of our work to lower folks’ cost of living,” Stein said. State lawmakers should take up legislation to make housing more affordable and improve access to affordable food and healthcare, he said.
“These are real problems that deserve real response from our elected officials, not just when a pollster shows them some really bad poll results about the coming elections,” Stein said.
All 170 seats in the North Carolina General Assembly are up for election and political analysts say the midterms offer Democrats the best chance of gaining power in years. Republicans currently — and for nearly all of the last decade — have held enough seats to enact many of their proposals with ease, even over objections of Democratic governors.
Republicans have expressed concern about losing influence in the legislature and economic factors are likely to drag Republicans down in the midterms, said Michael Bitzer, political scientist at Catawba College.
Trump’s approval rating has fallen to 43% among likely voters in North Carolina, according to a poll released late last month by High Point University. Meanwhile, gas prices have remained elevated into campaign season, ramping up the costs of all kinds of goods. Polls have shown affordability to be a top concern among voters.
The gas-tax suspension could help some incumbent legislators on the campaign trail, but it won’t serve as a silver bullet for Republicans, Bitzer said. Many voters are motivated by factors beyond the legislature’s control, he said. Also, voting is already underway: Election officials mailed absentee ballots to voters last month and early, in-person voting starts Oct. 15.
The incumbent candidates who will benefit most from the gas tax suspension are those who are in tight races and who have enough money to tout their vote on the airwaves, Bitzer said.
“There are a number of state House and state Senate districts where maybe this might help soften the cushion of a movement towards the Democrats away from the Republicans,” he said. “If you can move the needle 1, 2, 3 percentage points: that may save some districts.”
When Berger announced the details of the bill Wednesday, he shared the mic with Sens. Buck Newton, Lisa Barnes and Michael Lee —- all three of whom are facing tough reelection challenges.
Lee, the Senate majority leader, faces Jessica Bichler for his New Hanover County seat. Newton faces Democrat Jess Rivera in a district that includes Greene, Wayne, and Wilson counties. Barnes seeks reelection against former legislator James Gailliard in a district that spans Franklin, Nash, and Vance counties.
On Friday, Stein attempted to use the spotlight to his party’s advantage. He signed the bill at the western North Carolina farm of Jamie Ager, a Democrat running for Congress in North Carolina’s 11th District. Ager’s Republican opponent: state Rep. Jennifer Balkcom, who voted for the bill on Wednesday.
Ager and Balkcom are vying for the seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards, who’s not seeking reelection. Edwards launched a reelection campaign earlier this year but then dropped out in August after the House Ethics Committee said it found reason to believe he violated House rules on sexual harassment and hostile workplaces. The House later censured Edwards, who has disputed the allegations.
Ager is a hog and cattle farmer who has positioned himself as a moderate while advocating for more federal aid for victims of Hurricane Helene, which ravaged the district in September 2024.
Balkcom is a mortgage loan officer who has risen quickly through the legislative ranks since winning her state House seat in 2022. Balkcom led the GOP push in 2023 to ban transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports in middle school, high school and college athletics in North Carolina. And earlier this year, Balkcom led an effort to prevent foreign countries from buying certain land in North Carolina.
Trump won the district by 9 percentage points in 2024. The Cook Political Report, a Virginia-based nonpartisan group that studies the competitiveness of elections, earlier this year projected that the GOP nominee was likely to win but that the race could become competitive under certain conditions. In late September, Cook said the Ager-Balkcom race is now a toss up.
Ager was the first speaker at Stein’s bill-signing event. He praised lawmakers for unifying behind the gas tax suspension and praised Stein for loosening state laws on red-dyed diesel, which is typically reserved for off-road agricultural or construction equipment. Stein last week directed the state’s Department of Revenue to suspend enforcement of penalties for highway use of red-dyed diesel through Dec. 31. Then on Monday, Trump signed an executive order easing federal restrictions on the highway use of red-dyed diesel.
“We’re just so grateful to have leaders who are willing to come together and put together policy that’s helpful for farmers, Ager said.
Ager continued: “We do big bold things in America, and one of those things we need desperately in this country is to have folks come together to agree to solve problems to help folks live better lives and make their lives work better.”
Balkcom slammed Stein for including Ager at the bill-signing event because he wasn’t involved in the bill’s approval.
“The signing at liberal Jamie Ager’s compound is laughable and insulting to the citizens of western North Carolina,” Balkcom told WRAL in a statement. “Today’s charade proves that Jamie Ager is no different than any other DC liberal: he’ll say anything to get elected, take credit for things he didn’t do, and expect the voters to go along with it.”
Democratic state Rep. Lindsey Prather of Buncombe County also spoke at the bill-signing event. Prather is among the most vulnerable incumbent Democrats because voters in her district supported Trump by about 3 percentage points in the 2024 election. Prather is running for reelection against Republican Anthony Penland.