Van Orden Heads to Dallas Convention While Wisconsinites Struggle to Pay Their Energy Bills

MADISON, WI — This week, Trump and Republican candidates from across the country are holding their first-ever midterm national convention at the American Airlines Center in Dallas—a two-day, multi-million-dollar pep rally branded “The Great American Comeback,” with no official party business on the agenda—other than hobnobbing with billionaire donors and avoiding the issue that’s actually top of mind for Wisconsinites and all Americans: energy affordability and the cost of living crisis. 

While families across the country struggle to pay for gas and to cool their homes, Republicans are spending $25,000 to $100,000 to attend the convention. Trump and MAGA Republicans like Van Orden promised to lower costs, then blocked the cheaper, cleaner, American-made power, handed over the grid to data centers, and let Big Oil and monopoly utilities pass costs on to everyone else. Derrick Van Orden has received almost $95,000 from the oil and gas industry and nearly $20,000 from utility company donors in this campaign cycle alone. 

Here are the facts you won’t hear from Derrick Van Orden and other Republicans this week:

• We just saw the highest Labor Day gas prices ever, with diesel also hitting an all-time high nationwide.
• Wisconsin set a new state record for diesel prices during this past planting season, reaching $5.87 a gallon. 
• Big Oil’s bottom line keeps getting bigger as they rake in $85.2 billion in profits in Q2 alone.
• The average American family will pay nearly $800 in cooling costs by the end of the summer, up 10.5% from last year.
• Since Trump took office, Wisconsin’s average residential electricity prices have increased by 13%. 
• Between higher gas prices, utility bills, and tariffs, Trump has cost the average Wisconsin family an extra $2,035 since he took office. By the end of 2026, those totals could grow to $3,103. 
• Republicans caved to Trump’s demands by gutting affordable, American-made clean energy, paving the way for their ultra-wealthy oil and gas donors—who spent $450 million to elect Trump and the GOP in 2024 and influence Congress in the 2024 election cycle — to make even more money.  

Voters know that Republicans have rubber-stamped Trump’s every move, even if some want to distance themselves from him. Trump told Americans to pretend he’s on the ballot this November. He knows Republicans in Congress will keep rolling over for him, and voters do too.

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