In today’s edition … Democrats rally behind Graham Platner, warts and all … but first …
Read more Trump sees 22 medical specialists, appearing to set new bar for presidents
For years, lowering gas prices was one of the central promises of Republican campaigns. The prices of the Biden years were astronomical and ruinous, Republicans would say, caused by Democrats’ aggressive climate agenda that limited American drilling. The war in Ukraine was sucking away American resources, hurting voters in the wallet. Republicans promised their party would unleash American energy to bring those prices down.
The tables have turned.
Gas prices are approaching record highs again amid the war in Iran, and inflation is rising to the highest rate in three years on their watch. Frontline House Republicans who once campaigned on lowering the cost of gas are now either defending the high prices as necessary to counter Iran, blaming Democrats for past energy costs or avoiding the issue all together. It’s opening the door for Democrats to accuse them of hypocrisy.
Rep. Michael Lawler, a vulnerable Republican in New York, stated in a 2024 ad that “Housing, car payments, gas: The cost of everything has gone through the roof. And don’t even get me started on groceries.”
But after the conflict in Iran started spiking gas prices, Lawler told CNN in March that “eliminating the threat from Iran is absolutely worth it,” even if there is “short-term instability in the oil market”.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden, one of Democrats’ top targets in Wisconsin, ran in 2024 on a campaign focused on “gas, groceries and grandkids.” But after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Van Orden has embraced the need to eliminate Iran’s nuclear ambitions despite the high energy costs and wrote in a social media post directed at Democratic Gov. Tony Evers: “I don’t recall you complaining when gas was $5.00 under Biden.”
Before the war, Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican in a competitive Virginia district, pinned higher energy costs to former president Joe Biden, writing on her website at that Democrats caused “historic price increases that taxpayers are still struggling to keep up with,” including “paying more for gas, groceries, meals, cars, houses and everything in between.”
But after the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Kiggans scrubbed any mention of gas prices from her campaign website after prices started to go up, local Virginia news site Dogwood reported.
Democrats say Republicans are being hypocritical.
“Kiggans is solely looking at this as a political problem for her own election. She does not actually care about the fact that the people of Hampton Roads are paying 50 percent more for gas,” former representative Elaine Luria, a Democrat running to take back her old seat from Kiggans, told us.
Gas prices have shot up since the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran prompted Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz. The closure, which impacted roughly a fifth of global crude oil traffic, caused an enormous spike at the pump. Gas reached an average price of $4.522 a gallon last month, according to AAA. This year’s spike is the highest since the war in Ukraine helped gas reach a record high of $5.016 on average per gallon.
Democrats are drawing a distinction between the 2022 gas price highs and this year’s spike. The Ukraine conflict was not caused by the U.S., and gas prices spiked that year as supply lagged behind post-pandemic increases in demand. This year’s high prices, however, are largely caused by a conflict that the U.S. and Israel started, much to the chagrin even of U.S. allies.
“He’s a huge proponent of the war in Iran,” Rebecca Cooke, a Democrat running against Van Orden, told us of the Wisconsin Republican. “He’s losing sight of the direct correlation of gas prices and where this rise in prices is coming from. It’s like delusional.”
Van Orden defends his support for the offensive in Iran, asserting it was necessary to eliminate a longstanding national security threat.
“Cooke reducing 47 years of Iranian attacks and proxy warfare to a ‘war of choice’ so she can campaign off of it is a disgusting minimization of the American bloodshed that Iran has caused,” Van Orden told us in a statement.
He and Kiggans both noted to us that gas prices remain lower than they were during their heights under the Biden administration. Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee said voters have enjoyed relatively stable fuel prices under President Donald Trump because “Republicans unleashed American energy after four years of Democrat policies that drove prices through the roof.”
Before the strikes began, gas prices enjoyed three years of relative stability, with 2025 prices hovering around $3 a gallon, even during summer months when vacation travel usually drives prices back up.
Rep. Monica De La Cruz, who is running a competitive reelection campaign in Texas, bragged in February that gas prices were as low as $2.50 in South Texas, saying it was a “direct result of this Administration’s drive to unleash American energy and make life more affordable.”
But in recent months, “she’s been really quiet,” Bobby Pulido, a Democrat running to unseat De La Cruz, told us. “I don’t hear any type of fight in her when it comes to fighting for gas prices. She just stays silent.”
In a statement to us, De La Cruz’s team dismissed Pulido, a Tejano musician, as a “scumbag celebrity” while De La Cruz was a working mother who voted to remove limits on fracking to bring energy costs down.
Read more DOJ charges pro-Palestinian activists with threatening U. of Michigan officials
Trump has not seemed too bothered by the latest high prices. He declared yesterday: “I love the inflation” if it meant the U.S. was accomplishing its objectives in Iran. He made the comment after the consumer price index report showed inflation accelerating to 4.2 percent annually in May — its highest rate in more than three years.
As the sun rose on Maine’s rocky coast yesterday morning, some Democrats who have long harbored concerns about Graham Platner’s candidacy because of media reports about his checkered past grudgingly accepted that he will be their nominee in a must-win Senate race — even as Republicans start to use Platner as a cudgel against Democrats running nationwide.
We wrote about this dynamic — Democratic acceptance, Republican joy — with one-time Early Brief scribe Theodoric Meyer.
From the piece:
When Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) put out a joint statement on Democrat Graham Platner’s win in Maine on Tuesday night, it was 80 words into the 89-word message before they mentioned the controversial Senate candidate by name.
The statement, issued by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, offered no words of praise for Platner, only a prediction that Maine voters “will elect Graham Platner” over Sen. Susan Collins (R), helping Democrats to retake the Senate majority.
We wanted to go deeper into this dynamic, so we called Yasmin Radjy, executive director of Swing Left, a liberal grassroots organization that has pushed “ruthless pragmatism” on Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterm. What does that mean for Platner? “The bottom line is that electoral politics is a game of binaries,” Radjy said, and Platner in power is better for the party than Collins.
“Anyone who is in a majority-making seat on our map, we will support the Democratic nominee. Period,” Radjy said. Swing Left put out a statement on Wednesday arguing “supporting Democratic nominee Graham Platner is not optional.”
This is undoubtedly a lesson Democrats have learned from Republicans. A decade ago, Democrats would have thrown Platner overboard for the Nazi imagery he had tattooed on his chest, let alone claims that he sent sexually explicit text messages to women while married and had volatile relationships with women he dated before that.
“Yes, we need to learn from Republicans on this,” Radjy said. “If we are serious about what we keep on repeating, which is that we are standing on the front door of potential authoritarianism, if we actually believe that, ruthless pragmatism is the way we make sure we avoid authoritarian rule.”
Tucson Sentinel: Communities are starting to feel the impacts of Republican’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which, among other things, cut access to SNAP, the program once known as food stamps. Officials in Pima County were briefed this week on how 55 percent fewer children are on the program after the bill’s passage.
The Salt Lake Tribune: Immigration and Customs Enforcement would like to open a detention center in Salt Lake City. But a Utah group is now suing to stop the plan. It’s part of a broader protest effort against ICE warehouses in both blue and red states.
We received a number of colorful responses to our post about Jane Fonda — she, even this many years on, continues to stir reaction.
We especially wanted to highlight one from Tony Ramos, a Vietnam War veteran who was in Vietnam when Fonda went to North Vietnam and posed for photos in an anti-aircraft gun placement. Fonda, who earned the moniker “Hanoi Jane” after the visit, has since apologized for photos on that trip and pain those images may have caused veterans.
“I served in the USAF for over 30 years, upholding the principles upon which this Nation was founded, especially the First Amendment to the Constitution. I strongly support her right to protest. But when a person goes to a country that is in “an armed conflict” with the US and allows itself to be used for anti-US propaganda, that crosses the line,” Ramos wrote. “Her actions could have been well-intended, but actions have consequences and there were other ways to manifest her opposition to the War, like many did demonstrating against it here in the US.”
But in a sign of how that trip divided people, Charles Kuhar, a 76-year-old reader, said he had “admired Jane Fonda for what seems like most of my life, beginning with her vocal opposition to the Vietnam War.”
“I too was opposed. Today, all these years later, she is calling out Trump for his refusal to protect and defend the Constitution,” Kuhar wrote.
Democrats have had to overlook some baggage to rally behind Graham Platner. Republicans have had to overlook some baggage to rally behind Ken Paxton.
What do you think? What are you willing to overlook to have your party win?
Let us and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
Thanks for reading. You can follow Matthew and Dan on X: @matthewichoi and @merica.
Read more Federal judge warns Justice Department not to revive payout fund
