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<\/p>\nDemocrats in battleground House districts are taking aim at war-fueled price increases.<\/p>\n
Oct 19, 2026<\/p>\n
Updated 12:13 pm PT<\/p>\n
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Gas prices are displayed on a screen at a Shell gas station in San Francisco on Oct. 14, 2026.\u00a0(Gina Castro\/KQED)<\/p>\n
Here are the morning\u2019s top stories on Monday, October 19, 2026<\/p>\n
Gas prices in California continue to be the highest in the nation. So it\u2019s no surprise that prices at the pump are a hot topic in the state\u2019s closest elections for Congress. But the war in Iran has given California Democrats a rare opportunity to turn the tables on the issue.\u00a0<\/a>A surge in immigration arrests is underway in the Central Valley. Advocates say detained immigrants are being denied access to legal counsel<\/a>, and dozens are disappearing into the detention system.<\/p>\n After years of bearing the political blame for the nation\u2019s highest gas prices, California Democrats are turning the nozzle on Republicans in pivotal House battlegrounds this midterm election<\/a> cycle.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Sacramento, Richard Pan is running ads blasting his opponent for supporting \u201cthe war that raised gas prices.\u201d In Bakersfield, Randy Villegas stood outside a Shell station last week and pledged to suspend the federal gas tax. And in San Diego<\/a>, an ad for Marni von Wilpert \u201cshows her at a gas station, where she promises to \u201cbring your tax dollars home, not spend them on foreign wars that cost you money.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s all part of a nationwide Democratic push to turn the tables on an issue that haunted the party in the last two elections by hounding Republicans over price increases at the pump fueled by the war in Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n In California, however, the GOP is not yet ceding ground on the fuel price fight. Republicans remain confident that they can land attacks on Democrats over the state\u2019s longstanding environmental policies, gas tax and supply constraints as the cost of living weighs on voters statewide. The blame game over gas prices is taking on heightened importance as California\u2019s congressional battlegrounds move from the upscale coastal suburbs, where the Democratic \u201cblue wave\u201d first made landfall in 2018, to inland working-class communities where residents tend to drive more on average.<\/p>\n This year, California has three House contests widely considered to be the most competitive between Democrats and Republicans. An analysis by the Brookings Institution for KQED found that all three seats fall in the top third of California congressional districts in annual vehicle miles traveled per capita.\u00a0\u201cWhen [gas] prices go up \u2026 those who drive longer distances, those who have less room in their household budgets feel it the most,\u201d said Adie Tomer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. \u201cThose households are really taking it on the chin right now.\u201d<\/p>\n When gas prices spiked in 2022, GOP groups pounded Central Valley Democrats Rudy Salas, who supported the state\u2019s cap-and-trade program, and Adam Gray, who voted in favor of the gas tax increase. Both lost their campaigns that year, though Gray came back to win the 13th District in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRepublicans took us to task on gas prices,\u201d said Bill Wong, a Democratic strategist.\u00a0Wong spent years leading the campaign arm for Democrats in the state Assembly, building a supermajority that allowed the party to pass the gas tax and an ambitious environmental agenda \u2014 and protecting it amid attacks from the GOP over fuel prices.<\/p>\n Now, he sees an opening for Democrats to at least neutralize the issue, as Iran\u2019s attacks against ships carrying crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz sent prices soaring worldwide. Average gas prices have increased $1.35 per gallon since the beginning of the war, according<\/a> to NBC News.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a direct tie to something that they did with the increase in gas price,\u201d Wong said. \u201cI think it\u2019s time for the Democrats to really lean into it and say, \u2018Hey, you held us responsible for gas prices in the past, and now you\u2019re in charge.\u2019\u201d Across the country, Democrats have taken up that call to flip the script. A Politico analysis<\/a> of ad transcripts from the firm AdImpact found that roughly two-thirds of ads mentioning gas or gas prices in House or Senate elections came from Democrats. In 2024, 87% of gas price ads were run by Republicans.<\/p>\n Since federal immigration agents descended on California\u2019s Central Valley over the last two weeks, arresting scores of people<\/a> at gas stations, supermarkets and near agricultural fields, immigration attorneys say those arrested have been persistently denied access to legal counsel.<\/p>\n