WHAT TO KNOW: Republicans Paid the Price For Their Corrupt, Cost-Raising Energy Agenda 

Democratic candidates across the country made the case that clean energy is how we bring costs down and end the corruption driving them up   

Washington, DC – On Tuesday night, voters delivered a historic rebuke of Trump and Republicans’ corrupt cost-raising agenda nationwide, and energy costs were at the center of it. In 2024, Trump and Republicans promised to slash energy costs. Instead, they started a war of choice in Iran that has spiked gas prices and gutted affordable clean energy options, all while handing Big Oil and Big Tech billions in subsidies and favors. From Maine to Texas to Iowa, Democrats ran on holding Republicans accountable for the energy affordability crisis that they created – and won. 

Here’s how energy affordability drove voter turnout and delivered Democratic victories: 

• Wins in Key Races;
  • In Texas, Senator-elect James Talarico, the first Democrat to win a statewide election in Texas since 1994, beat Republican Ken Paxton by running to lower energy costs, grow Texas’ renewable energy sector, and hold Big Tech accountable for their utility cost-raising data centers. 
  • In Ohio – a state that was +11 for Trump in 2024 — Senator-elect Sherrod Brown focused on lowering utility bills and called out Jon Husted for being “the face of data centers.”
  • In Michigan, Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed held Mike Rogers accountable for backing a war that has sent gas and diesel prices through the roof, and called him out for taking millions from Elon Musk, oil and gas companies, and DTE Energy. 
  • In Maine, Senator-elect Troy Jackson unseated five-term Republican incumbent Susan Collins by connecting the Iran war to higher heating costs, and calling for investments in clean energy to protect families from the ‘boom and bust’ of volatile oil markets. 
  • In Michigan, Congressman-elect Sean McCann (MI-04) ran on clean, affordable energy and beat out eight-term Republican incumbent Bill Huizenga after the Trump administration forced the extension of a dirty, expensive coal plant, pushing energy affordability to the forefront of a key House race. 
  • In Iowa, Congresswoman-elect Christina Bohannan (IA-01) campaigned on lowering utility costs and promised to invest in clean energy to flip a seat from three-term Republican incumbent Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
  • In Michigan, where household electricity costs have increased by 24% since Trump took office, Congressman-elect William Lawrence (MI-07) ran on lowering utility bills and called out Republican Tom Barrett for voting to speed up data center development and block local regulation. 
  • In North Carolina, Congressman-elect Jamie Ager (NC-11), ran on lowering energy costs and promised to hold Trump and Republicans accountable for failing to deliver recovery funds following Hurricane Helene’s devastation. 
  • In Georgia’s historic gubernatorial race, Governor-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms ran on lowering utility bills and regulating Republicans’ unchecked development of polluting, cost-raising data centers. 
  • In Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial race, incumbent Josh Shapiro ran ads about his record of investing in clean energy to boost the economy. 
  • In Nevada’s gubernatorial race, Governor-elect Aaron Ford campaigned on investing in clean energy and held his Republican opponent responsible for rubber-stamping Trump’s energy-cost-raising agenda.  
• Democrats spent big on political ads mentioning energy costs;
  • Utility costs became a ‘midterm weapon,’ with more than $249 million spent in political ads about energy bills in October alone, the majority from Democrats, according to AdImpact data. 
  • In the 2024 election cycle, 87% of ads mentioning gas prices in House and Senate races were run by Republicans. This year, 76% of ads mentioning gas prices came from Democratic candidates or groups.
  • Democrats spent big to own the energy debate. In the most competitive races, 42% of recent Democratic ad spending went to ads mentioning energy affordability-related issues, while Republicans spent just 19%.
  • Democrats turned data centers into a campaign issue: According to AdImpact data, they outspent Republicans 4:1 in ads related to energy-guzzling, unregulated data centers.
• Polling consistently showed that Republicans were on the losing side of the energy affordability issue;
  • Pre-election polling showed that battleground voters overwhelmingly blamed Republicans and their policies for worsening energy prices.
  • Republicans lost voters’ trust on energy costs. Battleground voters trusted Democrats more than Republicans to lower utility bills (+15), lower gas and diesel costs (+5), and have a long-term plan to meet the country’s energy needs (+16).
  • Oil and gas companies, alongside Big Tech, are viewed as two of the most corrupt industries, with voters increasingly saying that corruption is a top concern overall. This cycle, rising energy costs were the way voters most felt corruption in their daily lives. 
• Public opinion on data centers cratered during this election cycle, and Democrats seized the moment;
  • Republicans’ ties to data center developers like billionaire Elon Musk were a key issue in Michigan, Texas, and Ohio races. Sherrod Brown, Abdul El-Sayed, and James Talarico consistently called out their opponents for taking millions in support from data center developers to win voters on the issue.
  • Trump used the full force of his administration to push through massive, fossil-fueled power data centers, despite overwhelming opposition from the American public. Republicans rubber-stamped his pro-data center agenda and on Tuesday, they paid the price for it at the ballot box. 
  • Spending on ads mentioned data centers accelerated fast throughout the cycle, showing that data center development was a top issue in 2026. $311M went to ads mentioning data centers, three-quarters of it from Democrats ($234M to $71M). Almost half of that money went to  ads tying data centers to higher electric or utility bills.