CA Democrats Look to Flip the Script on Gas Prices

Here are the morning’s top stories on Monday, October 19, 2026

• Gas prices in California continue to be the highest in the nation. So it’s no surprise that prices at the pump are a hot topic in the state’s closest elections for Congress. But the war in Iran has given California Democrats a rare opportunity to turn the tables on the issue. 
• A surge in immigration arrests is underway in the Central Valley. Advocates say detained immigrants are being denied access to legal counsel, and dozens are disappearing into the detention system.

After years of bearing the political blame for the nation’s highest gas prices, California Democrats are turning the nozzle on Republicans in pivotal House battlegrounds this midterm election cycle. 

In Sacramento, Richard Pan is running ads blasting his opponent for supporting “the war that raised gas prices.” In Bakersfield, Randy Villegas stood outside a Shell station last week and pledged to suspend the federal gas tax. And in San Diego, an ad for Marni von Wilpert “shows her at a gas station, where she promises to “bring your tax dollars home, not spend them on foreign wars that cost you money.”

It’s 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. 

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’s 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’s congressional battlegrounds move from the upscale coastal suburbs, where the Democratic “blue wave” first made landfall in 2018, to inland working-class communities where residents tend to drive more on average.

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. “When [gas] prices go up … those who drive longer distances, those who have less room in their household budgets feel it the most,” said Adie Tomer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “Those households are really taking it on the chin right now.”

When gas prices spiked in 2022, GOP groups pounded Central Valley Democrats Rudy Salas, who supported the state’s 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. 

“Republicans took us to task on gas prices,” said Bill Wong, a Democratic strategist. Wong 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 — and protecting it amid attacks from the GOP over fuel prices.

Now, he sees an opening for Democrats to at least neutralize the issue, as Iran’s 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 to NBC News.

“There’s a direct tie to something that they did with the increase in gas price,” Wong said. “I think it’s time for the Democrats to really lean into it and say, ‘Hey, you held us responsible for gas prices in the past, and now you’re in charge.’” Across the country, Democrats have taken up that call to flip the script. A Politico analysis 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.

Since federal immigration agents descended on California’s Central Valley over the last two weeks, arresting scores of people at gas stations, supermarkets and near agricultural fields, immigration attorneys say those arrested have been persistently denied access to legal counsel.

Lawyers say U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has also failed to update the whereabouts of all those arrested in its “detainee locator” database, meaning that dozens of individuals are essentially disappearing into ICE’s vast detention system.

Since the surge in arrests began on Oct. 5, pro bono immigration attorneys working with rapid response networks have spent hours each day at ICE’s Fresno — and later Bakersfield — short-term processing facilities, asking to be admitted to identify who was detained and advise them of their rights, according to María Sofía Corona Gómez, directing attorney at the UFW Foundation in Fresno. On some days, lawyers said they gained entrance at 4 or 5 p.m. to discover dozens of people inside but were only given time to meet with two or three. On other days, they were not allowed inside ICE’s holding area at all. Then, within a day or so, those arrested were moved to other detention facilities — in California or as far away as Texas, she said.

In some instances, Corona Gómez said, she’s been given a name by a family member of a person who was arrested, but has been unable to locate them. “They’re back there, and I’m not getting access,” she said. “And after hours [of waiting], I’m then being told, ‘Oh, now they’re not here. Now they’re at this detention center.’ But then we show up at the detention center, and it’s ‘No, they’re not in my system.’ Well, this is day five. This is day nine. Where are they?”

In response to a request for comment on the arrest operation and concerns that detainees are being denied access to attorneys, an ICE spokesperson who would not provide their name issued the following statement: “For operational security and the safety of our officers, ICE will not disclose or discuss law enforcement operations. Every day, DHS enforces the laws of the nation across the country, including in California.”