Gas prices threaten GOP lawmakers’ plans to win on affordability

Rising gas prices and no clear end of the Iran war are clashing with GOP plans to win the November elections on a message of affordability.

Republican U.S. House lawmakers are huddled in Miami this week to figure out a legislative agenda and midterm messaging to spotlight lower prices and new tax breaks.

Some lawmakers at the gathering acknowledged that the spike in gas prices — up more than 60 cents from a month ago according to AAA — is painful, but said they remain confident in President Donald Trump’s promise that the conflict in Iran will be over soon and gas prices will come back down.

The morning after Trump reassured both lawmakers and markets that the war was ahead of schedule and would be over soon, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., echoed that the war is “nearly completed” and “gas prices will readjust after that.”

“The Strait of the Strait of Hormuz has been closed by the regime down there, but it will be reopened, and it will take a couple of weeks, but gas prices will come back down,” Johnson told reporters at the GOP retreat.

Many lawmakers said they are holding out hope the war will end in the coming weeks and gas prices will come down, sparing them from having to deal with a political headache close to Election Day in November.

But other members privately expressed concerns that the impact of gas prices and uncertainty over the war could overshadow any policy-focused agenda. Republicans control the House by a tight margin of 218-214 with three seats vacant. The special election for the seat Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., resigned is Tuesday.

“Is the objective clear? Are other allies involved? What happens to energy prices? All relevant questions we don’t have answers to as of yet,” said one GOP lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity to counter the party line. The Strait of Hormuz needs “to be reopened.”

A second GOP lawmaker, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said high gas prices are “a problem” but added that “hopefully by Election Day they will be back down.”

Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said high gas prices have to be addressed, noting he’d already paid more at the pump.

“We are absolutely seeing short-term spikes. And those are concerning,” he said in a brief interview at the Republican gathering.

Guthrie added that Republicans should be making the case why the strikes in Iran were needed in the first place, which he defined as keeping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and preventing the U.S. and its allies from being attacked first.

“I do think people need to understand why,” Guthrie said. “We need to lay out exactly why [Trump’s] doing what he’s doing in Iran. And I know he’s talked about it, but I think it needs to be continued, because people need to continue to hear.”

The war…