JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In California, gas prices remain the highest in the nation. And pain at the pump has been a hot topic in the state's most competitive races for Congress. The issue has long favored California's Republicans. But the war in Iran has given Democrats a rare opening to turn the tables. From member station KQED, Guy Marzorati reports.
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MARNI VON WILPERT: No pain, no gain? Tell that to a family...
GUY MARZORATI, BYLINE: In this ad, Marni von Wilpert is standing where few California Democrats have dared to go - a gas station.
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VON WILPERT: Not spend them on foreign wars that cost you money.
MARZORATI: Democrats here have long been on the defensive over California's nation-high gas prices, driven by environmental rules that limit carbon emissions and a gas tax that pays for transportation, policies put in place by Democrats at the state capitol. But Democratic candidates like von Wilpert are pointing to the war in Iran for this year's prolonged increases.
VON WILPERT: The first thing we saw with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz was the spike in gas prices.
MARZORATI: Von Wilpert is running in the 48th House District, a southern California seat held by retiring Republican Congressman Darrell Issa. It's one of the most competitive in the state, according to the Cook Political Report. Von Wilpert is running here against Republican Jim Desmond and says, in this district...
VON WILPERT: We need our cars. You know, it's a large district. There's not enough transit to get around without them, and so people are feeling the pain at the gas pump.
MARZORATI: The 48th District is among the heaviest driving districts in California, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of annual vehicle miles traveled. Adie Tomer is a senior fellow at Brookings.
ADIE TOMER: Across the country, districts that are represented by Republican-elected officials are disproportionately those districts where people drive longer distances.
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MARZORATI: Robin Ferguson lives in the district. She plans to vote for the Democrat, von Wilpert, in November.
ROBIN FERGUSON: When we don't have the public transportation up here in North County to get down to San Diego that some of the other areas do, gas prices is a big issue.
MARZORATI: And it's an issue that Democrats are increasingly talking about as they look to win back Congress. Nationally, over 60% of ads mentioning gas prices have come from Democrats, according to AdImpact, a complete reversal from 2024. But this is California, and Republicans are also campaigning on gas prices.
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KEVIN LINCOLN: Thanks to Adam Gray and Gavin Newsom, you get charged extra every time you fill up.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Stupid California gas tax.
MARZORATI: In another swing seat, Republican Kevin Lincoln is attacking Democratic incumbent Adam Gray for his vote to raise the state gas tax to fund road repair when he was in the state assembly.
LINCOLN: And that's what makes California so different.
MARZORATI: Christian Martinez is a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ: There are specific votes, specific policies that voters can examine rather than simply looking at what's happening in Washington.
MARZORATI: Back in the San Diego area, that argument is resonating with Gabriel Uribe, a construction worker who stopped to fill up his pickup truck in San Marcos. High gas prices were the top reason he voted for Donald Trump in 2024.
GABRIEL URIBE: Oh, for sure. Yeah. It's No. 1, why, you know, I voted the way I did in the last presidential elections. It's just that it went - it still can't change unless we change here.
MARZORATI: And until things change at the state level, Uribe says, the blame for high gas prices should stay with the Democrats.
For NPR News, I'm Guy Marzorati in San Marcos, California.
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