Sept. 15, 2025, 1:57 p.m.
Voters across the country are grappling with skyrocketing prices. The price of eggs is up 17 percent since last year. Coffee is up 33 percent. And the price to keep the lights on at home is even higher: Electricity prices nationally have climbed more than twice as fast as overall living costs.
Democratic gubernatorial nominees in Virginia and New Jersey are making combating rising costs a key component of their agendas. If they’re successful, their playbook could be copied by Democrats across the country next year in the midterms.
The move comes as Democrats, who have struggled to win over voters on the issue of affordability amid Biden-era inflation, seek to recast themselves as the champions of lowering household costs.
Consumer prices have risen nearly 25 percent since the start of 2020. Polls in Virginia and New Jersey confirm that the cost of living and the economy remain top-of-mind for voters heading to the polls.
“For energy to be the No. 1 issue in the gubernatorial campaign is unusual. I don’t think we’ve seen that ever in New Jersey,” New Jersey Republican strategist Jeanette Hoffman said. “It’s usually taxes. But I think because of the explosion in energy bills over the past several months, it’s definitely on the top of all voters’ minds.”
However, tying energy and utility affordability platforms to some longer-term green energy efforts like reducing the use of fossil fuels and investing in wind and solar projects could pose risks, especially as voters want immediate solutions to skyrocketing bills.
The two states are located in the country’s largest electric grid. Households on the East Coast have incurred rising energy costs as strains from data centers, which will make up more than 90 percent of the new power demand for the grid by 2030, have pushed household prices higher. Dominion Energy proposed rate hikes for customers near Richmond, Virginia, while Garden State wholesale electricity prices rose by 20 percent in June.
“Demand is up. Supply is not going up. And of course prices are going to increase. This is just basic economics,” said Daniel Cassino, professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Residents of Virginia, New Jersey, and states across the country can expect prices to keep rising. The GOP budget bill, which rolled back some of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean-energy incentives, is projected to increase annual energy bills by a total of $170 billion by 2034, according to an analysis by energy and climate policy think tank Energy Innovation.
While both former Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia and Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey have put some blame for rising costs on President Trump, they are framing the issue as a local one.
“Any time you can get in the state elections something that isn’t a federal issue, it’s a lot easier to talk about,” Virginia Democratic strategist Ben Tribbett said, “because the federal stuff just immediately puts everyone in the partisan corners, and energy issues and affordability generally are great issues to run on in a gubernatorial election.”
Spanberger has proposed growing Virginia’s energy independence by increasing local generation, exploring low- or no-fuel options, including wind and solar, and making data centers pay for their share of electricity generation.
Sherrill follows a similar playbook. She’s made investing in solar, reducing the state’s carbon footprint, and freezing utility bills on day one her marquee proposal on the issue. However, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, whose administration provided relief credits for utility bills, doubts whether Sherrill’s utility bill freeze will work.
If elected, the two can use their influence as governor to push PJM Interconnection, the organization that manages the wholesale electricity market in the eastern U.S., to plug more projects into the grid, Justin Balik, vice president for state engagement at Evergreen Action, told National Journal.
The deeper into the weeds you get in an energy conversation, the more you're going to lose voters. ”
— University of Mary Washington political scientist Stephen Farnsworth
“We’ve seen Mikie Sherrill talk about that day in and day out, and that’s something where the governors can use their bully pulpit to push these grid operators to reform their practices and get more clean energy online,” Balik said.
But it may not be so simple. Green-energy solutions that would rely on new wind farms or solar can take years to build and won’t provide immediate relief to voters’ pocketbooks. Translating plans to reduce energy costs toward environmentalist talking points such as reducing the carbon footprint can also pose problems for Democrats with skeptical voters.
“The deeper into the weeds you get in an energy conversation, the more you’re going to lose voters,” University of Mary Washington political scientist Stephen Farnsworth said. “The key issue is affordability right now. Long-term energy plans are not likely to be a pivotal question to voters.”
Republicans have taken a different approach. Jack Ciattarelli, the GOP nominee in New Jersey, blames Murphy’s energy initiatives that prioritized green options for causing rising energy costs in the state. He is promoting an all-of-the-above energy policy, diversifying energy sources while prioritizing natural gas, alongside repealing state mandates and banning offshore wind farms.
Restore New Jersey, the Republican Governors Association-backed super PAC, is up with an ad saying Sherrill supported plans to shut down power plants and instead build offshore windmills, which the group claims “tripled” electric bills this summer.
Republicans have previously argued that green-energy proposals are actually bad for the environment, according to Cassino, but now they are framing it as a trade-off between green energy and affordability, which, he added, is “very much the fight the Republicans want to be having.”
“If you’re looking at the party that’s consistently talked about lowering your electric prices, lowering your taxes, that’s the Republican Party," Hoffman said. "If you’re looking at the party that’s been in power in New Jersey for eight years and have consistently raised your energy bills, that’s the Democratic Party.”
The winning message on affordability and energy costs this year will be a key indicator to how midterm candidates approach this issue, which is unlikely to ease before next year. A Center for American Progress analysis found that nearly 81 million electricity customers will see higher rates starting this year and next.
“Voters can thank Donald Trump and his disastrous budget bill for their skyrocketing electricity bills, and we won’t let them forget that Winsome Sears and Jack Ciattarelli continue to cheer on Trump’s deeply unpopular agenda that is raising costs and killing jobs,” said Democratic Governors Association communications director Sam Newton. “In contrast, Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill are going on offense on the economy and affordability ... aggressively running on real plans that will lower costs for the middle class—including tackling the rising cost of energy and utilities.”
If the two Democratic gubernatorial nominees win this year, other candidates are likely to model affordability platforms after theirs.
“I think the folks running for governor are smart to be doing that, telling that story about why what’s happening is happening, and then also be presenting whatever solutions are within their own authority to implement to help in whatever way they can,” Balik said.
