Cruz contrasted those prices with the decline that followed President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. According to Cruz, the national average eventually fell to roughly $3 per gallon.
AAA data provides support for part of that argument. The national average reached $2.99 per gallon in December 2025, marking the first time in four years that the nationwide price had fallen below the $3 threshold.
Prices have since climbed again. AAA listed the national average at $4.41 per gallon on October 1, 2026. Even with that increase, Cruz argued that Americans are still paying less than they did during the Biden years.
But Cruz wasn’t interested in simply comparing prices.
He wanted voters to remember the broader philosophy behind Democratic energy policy.
“Remember, these are the same Democrats who said they wanted $10-a-gallon gas.”
That claim points back to a debate that has surrounded Democratic energy policy for nearly two decades.
In 2008, Steven Chu, who would later become Barack Obama’s secretary of energy, told The Wall Street Journal, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”
At the time, gasoline prices across much of Europe were substantially higher than those in the United States.
Obama subsequently selected Chu to lead the Energy Department. Once in government, however, Chu softened his earlier position. By 2012, as gasoline prices remained politically damaging and Obama’s reelection campaign approached, Chu told Congress, “I no longer share that view.”
Republicans, however, argue that the broader Democratic push to reduce America’s dependence on fossil fuels never disappeared.
They point to Biden as evidence.
On May 23, 2022, Biden stood alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and addressed the painful increase Americans were experiencing at gas stations.
“We’re going through an incredible transition that is taking place that, God willing, when it’s over, we’ll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels when this is over,” he said.
Within weeks, the national average gasoline price crossed $5 per gallon for the first time in U.S. history.
For Republicans, that moment remains politically potent. Their argument is that Americans were being told to accept painful prices as part of a long-term transformation of the energy economy.
Now, Democrats campaigning in Texas are once again talking about the cost of gasoline.
And Cruz is warning voters not to forget what came before.
Talarico Becomes Cruz’s Latest Target
One of Cruz’s sharpest attacks was aimed at James Talarico, the Democratic candidate challenging Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate race.
Cruz accused Talarico of wanting the oil and gas industry to disappear.
He said Talarico “wants oil and gas to go the way of the cassette tape, that he wants to dismantle capitalism.”
Talarico’s own past comments have given Republicans plenty of material.
During a virtual forum hosted by the Austin chapter of the Sierra Club in September 2020, Talarico, then serving in the Texas House, discussed the future of the oil and gas industry.
“That industry is not gonna last.”
He went on to compare Texas’ position as a global oil leader to “being the leader in cassette tapes in the 1980s.”
Talarico also described capitalism alongside white supremacy and climate change as “oppressive systems” and discussed the idea of “dismantling them.”
The comments resurfaced publicly after CNN reported on the recording, giving Republicans an opportunity to highlight Talarico’s past statements as he campaigns for statewide office.
Then came the gasoline station appearance.
On September 26, 2026, Talarico appeared at a gas station in Carrollton and promoted a proposal to suspend the federal gasoline tax.
The federal levy is approximately 18 cents per gallon for gasoline and roughly 24 cents for diesel.
Paxton immediately attacked the move, arguing that appearing beside a gas pump does not erase Talarico’s previous positions on the energy industry.
“Standing next to a gas pump doesn’t make Talarico the authority on affordability or a friend of Texas drivers,” Paxton said. “It makes him a hypocrite.”
Paxton also called for eliminating the federal gas tax permanently, arguing that the nation’s transportation infrastructure should instead be financed by “cutting waste, not by taxing Texans at the pump.”
Democrats Tried the Same Strategy in 2022
Republicans also point out that Talarico’s gas-tax proposal isn’t a new Democratic strategy.
Biden called for a temporary federal gas-tax holiday in June 2022 as gasoline prices surged across the country.
Congress ultimately failed to enact the proposal.
Meanwhile, the broader energy debate continued, with Republicans accusing the Biden administration of restricting domestic oil and gas development while American consumers faced historically high prices.
For Texas voters, the issue carries particular weight.
The state’s economy is deeply connected to the oil and gas sector, especially across communities surrounding the Permian Basin.
A temporary reduction in the federal gasoline tax could provide some relief at the pump. But Republicans argue that such a measure does not address the larger question of America’s energy strategy.
An 18-cent reduction means little, they contend, if policymakers simultaneously pursue policies that make domestic production more difficult.
That is the argument Cruz and other Texas Republicans are now taking directly to voters.
Their message is that Texas does not need politicians who appear beside a gasoline pump when prices become politically inconvenient. They say voters need leaders who will support domestic production, protect energy jobs and keep the United States capable of producing the fuel its economy requires.
The coming campaign will likely put that argument to the test.
Democrats will point to proposals designed to reduce the immediate burden on drivers.
Republicans will point back to the Biden-era price spikes, past Democratic comments about fossil fuels, and the broader push toward an energy system less dependent on oil and gas.
For Cruz and the Texas GOP, the political calculation is simple.
Gasoline prices are not merely numbers displayed on a roadside sign. They are a daily reminder of the cost of energy policy.
And as Texas Democrats ask voters for their support, Republicans are betting that voters will remember exactly what those policies cost them at the pump.
