While the U.S. midterm election narrative was light on national climate and transportation policy, the impacts of ongoing economic turmoil certainly took center stage. Even though the national average price for gasoline has dropped considerably since its early-summer peak, the lasting financial impact stuck with U.S. voters, nearly two-thirds of whom said that gas prices had caused them financial hardship over the past year.
Curiously, the impacts weren't felt equally by left- and right-leaning voters. Per NBC's exit polling, Republican-identifying voters were nearly twice as likely to say they were unduly burdened by higher fuel prices. Of the 34% of respondents who said gas prices didn't impact them, fewer than a quarter identified as Republican. Per FiveThirtyEight's analysis, the same surveyed GOP voters reported higher income than those who identified as Democrat.
These responses correlate with opinions about the impact of inflation among voters who identified with both parties, as shown in the tweet above. Inflation has been of serious concern in the auto industry, with new- and used-car values skyrocketing throughout much of the pandemic. Sticker shock has only recently begun to ease.
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