Rising energy prices during President Donald Trump’s second term are giving Democrats a new campaign issue as they seek to win over voters.

Democrats, who want to end the GOP trifecta in Washington next year, are starting to campaign on more affordable energy. Electricity costs continue to rise after Trump promised on the campaign trail last year to slash energy prices when he took office.

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“For nine months, we watched this Administration and congressional Republicans do everything to stifle clean energy, and clean energy is the fastest growing and the cheapest source of electricity,” Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) told the Washington Examiner.

“Republicans are blocking the only sources of energy that can be built fast enough to meet growing demand and cheaply enough to actually keep energy bills in check,” he added, pointing to expiring clean energy tax credits.

Following the passage of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Democrats not only leaned into the cuts to entitlement programs such as Medicaid, but have also highlighted the GOP’s aggressive phasing out of clean energy tax credits from former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

Trump’s multitrillion-dollar spending plan extends the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The massive piece of legislation, passed through a process called reconciliation, not only extends the lower individual tax rates that were part of the 2017 law but also makes them permanent. 

The cost of electricity has continued to soar for most Americans and is shaping up to be a campaign issue for the 2025 and 2026 elections. In the New Jersey governor’s election this November, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Republican Jack Ciattarelli have both shifted their focus as electricity bills are at the top of voters’ minds in the state. 

“Day One as governor, I’m declaring a state of emergency on utility costs using emergency powers to end these rate hikes and drive down your bills,” said Sherrill in her first TV ad of the general election.

Ciattarelli pledged to “lower electricity bills” in a campaign ad and has worked to tie Sherrill to the current Democratic governor on electricity prices as he looks to an “all of the above approach.” 

The New Jersey gubernatorial race is not the only place where energy prices are being made a center point. Just this week, Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) announced a rebate program for utility bill payments as part of his latest effort to lower energy costs for Marylanders. He’s up for reelection in 2026.

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Levin and Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) launched a “cheap energy agenda” aiming to address rising energy bills by restoring tax credits for cheap energy, building out a modernized electricity grid, connecting cheap energy to the grid, developing cheap, clean energy, protecting consumers, and involving communities in energy projects. 

Levin said his legislation is a direct result of concerns brought to him by his constituents.

“I think there’s a great deal of frustration that you have people in my district and districts all across the country who are really struggling to make ends meet, costs are very high across the board, and electricity bills are going up and up and up, and others that want to do energy efficiency upgrades are finding those upgrades to be extremely expensive without these credits,” Levin told the Washington Examiner.

Many electricity bills come with a monthly chart showing how much energy costs have risen, making it apparent to voters when costs are high. 

“Americans want lower costs, and rising energy bills will be a regular, unavoidable reminder to voters that House Republicans have failed miserably at fulfilling their central campaign promise,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesman Viet Shelton told the Washington Examiner. “Broken promises and working families facing bigger and bigger bills because of the Big, Ugly Law — these will be the leading reasons Republicans will lose their majority next year.” 

Rep. Josh Riley (D-NY) has also been highlighting high electricity prices. He introduced the Keep the Lights Local Act, which aims to cut costs.

“Utility bills in Upstate New York haven’t been this high in a decade,” Riley wrote on social media. “More than a million homes are now at least two months behind on payments.”

Electricity prices have increased at a pace almost double that of inflation. For the year ending in August, electricity shot up 6.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.

The Trump administration has blamed Biden-era green energy initiatives and the accelerated phaseout of traditional fossil fuels such as coal. Trump called increased reliance on wind and solar energy production “THE SCAM OF THE CENTURY!”

In an interview with the Washington Examiner in August, Energy Secretary Chris Wright backed up Trump’s assessment.

“If you take a grid or a system and grow the renewables penetration, you will raise the price of it,” Wright said. “The president’s 100% correct in that.”

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which is seeking to hold or flip House seats in New York and California, said higher utility rates are the result of blue state leadership.

“Utility rates in blue states are the direct result of the failed leadership, misplaced priorities, reckless spending, and radical policies of governors like [Gavin] Newsom and [Kathy] Hochul,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella told the Washington Examiner. “No false attack changes the fact that liberal wish lists in Albany and Sacramento have driven up prices for their constituents while Republicans are left cleaning up their mess.”

A September analysis by Inside Climate News found the average household price of electricity in the United States rose by 9.5% this year, with the highest spikes found in Missouri (38.3% increase), North Dakota (33.6%), New Jersey (28.6%), Iowa (27.5%), and Montana (25.3%)

The blame game comes as the cost of living is a persistent issue for voters across the nation, specifically, concerns about the rising cost of energy.

According to left-wing think tank Data for Progress, 60% of voters reported paying more for electric bills than last year. A PowerLines poll conducted with Ipsos shows that “three out of four Americans, across party lines, say they are worried about rising utility bills.” The Energy Information Administration estimated that average residential electricity prices in the U.S. will jump from $0.1648 per kilowatt-hour in 2024 to around $0.1790 per kilowatt-hour next year.

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As prices continue to rise, clean energy advocates insist that renewables are not to blame, arguing that some states with the cheapest electricity have built large amounts of wind and solar power. EIA data compiled by American Clean Power show that the top 10 states with the largest share of renewables in their energy makeup have seen significantly smaller electricity price hikes over the last year than the national average (a roughly 2.5% increase).

Along with electricity prices, Democrats continue to message on Medicaid following the passage of Trump’s megabill. From the onset, Democrats labeled the bill the “big, ugly law,” as they held hundreds of events across the country to say that Medicaid cost savings would kick millions of people off their healthcare. Democrats plan to stick to their plan of slamming the bill, even though the tightening of Medicaid eligibility won’t kick in until after the 2026 elections.

Callie Patteson contributed to this report.