The Republican National Committee announced Monday a nationwide initiative to register voters at gas stations to highlight the rising fuel prices at the pump.
The campaign began over the weekend as GOP activists registered voters in Arizona, North Carolina and New York. The RNC says more voter registration drives are expected in battleground states and districts including California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.
“These #NCBoots went out to the gas station this morning to register voters and recruit new team members! Excited to see this grow out to more surrounding gas stations! #LeadRight,” tweeted Isaac Wetherill, regional field director for the North Carolina Republican Party.
New York Republicans registered voters in Manhasset, on Long Island, where they passed out anti-Biden stickers and waved pro-GOP signs by a Mobil gas station.
“Skyrocketing gas prices, record inflation and violent crime are causing even the most liberal New Yorkers to flee from the Democrat Party. What better place to bring them into the fold than after they just spent $100 filling their tank?” New York Republican State Committee Chair Nicholas Langworthy told The Washington Times in a statement. “These are the kitchen table issues that will be front and center in this election, which is shaping up to deliver the greatest Republican victories in modern history.”
As of Monday, the American Automobile Association’s (AAA) national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $4.25, more than 50% higher than the $2.82 a gallon cost one year ago.
Nine months before the midterm elections, Republicans see an opportunity to register frustrated drivers paying record-high gas prices and blaming President Biden and his energy policies.
“The Biden Gas Hike is a product of his own doing, and Americans have faced record high gas prices as a result. The RNC is mobilizing at gas stations across the country to register voters and remind folks that the anti-American energy of Biden and the Democrats is costing them more,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
President Biden and his Democratic allies, however, say that gas prices are higher because of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last month and the response to the U.S. sanctions on Russian oil that have followed.
Republicans note that prices for gasoline and other petroleum products were rising long before Russia had invaded Ukraine and that the Biden administration should respond to that invasion by loosening regulations to let American oil and gas companies drill at home, rather than by asking often-unfriendly foreign regimes to pump more.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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