The Democratic Party in recent years hasn’t exactly mastered the art of sloganeering.
President Joe Biden’s signature “Build Back Better,” which encompassed the bulk of his domestic agenda, is now a three-word reminder of a bill that practically burned to ashes on the Senate floor. Voters never really understood anyway.
Quips like “tax the rich” and “cancel student debt” serve as ammo from progressives toward their more moderate counterparts but were quickly weaponized by the right. As were phrases like “defund the police” that outright divided the party—with critics saying it even damaged Democrats in 2020.
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But amid a striking rise in gas prices, Democrats are hoping they’ve found a winning slogan to explain the issue in time for the November elections: “Putin’s price hike.”
The phrase and subtle variations of it—which have been repeatedly worked into Democratic messaging in recent days—are meant to point toward Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as the source of soaring prices at the pump. The White House has already banned Russian oil imports—and the House separately voted to do the same—limiting the U.S. overall oil supply.
“I’m going to do everything I can to minimize Putin’s price hike here at home,” Biden said last week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week called it “Putin’s gas hike.” The Democratic National Committee tweeted on Sunday, “This is Putin’s gas price hike.” Democratic lawmakers like Reps. Bobby Scott (VA), Nikema Williams (GA), and Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) have chimed in online with a #PutinPriceHike hashtag. Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) tweeted that “Putin’s price hike” is hurting working families, while Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) posted that amid “Putin’s price hike,” she’s pushing for clean-energy legislation.
Messaging gas prices effectively is crucial for Democrats, who are forecast to face a difficult midterm election in November. Inflation has already been a challenge to explain; the word “transitory”—which was initially used to explain the rise in the price of goods—has long faded from their talking points.
But how far the “Putin’s price hike” message can carry Democrats is yet to be determined.
Celinda Lake, a pollster who worked with the 2020 Biden campaign, said she believes targeting Putin can be effective, saying it “provides the villain, provides the rationale.” But there may be a ticking clock on the message as gas prices remain high.
“It’s hard to know how long and how much the public has tolerance for,” she said.
Jim Kessler, executive vice president at Third Way, a moderate Democratic think tank, said the message “is effective because it’s true” and serves as a reminder of just who to blame for the current market instability.
Kessler also pointed to the rapid rise in gas prices that’s specifically come since the invasion, which has added to already heightened prices from the past year, stating, “That’s Putin. It’s nothing else but Putin.”
Gas prices in the past two months had already risen by 25 percent and are expected to go even higher, per the Energy Information Administration. The average price per gallon of gas on Thursday was about $4.30, according to AAA’s national average, with the West Coast being hit particularly hard.
Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, told The Daily Beast there’s an advantage for Democrats in pinning Putin as the bad guy, calling it “a potential game-changer that the White House very badly needed.” But Miringoff cautioned that while Putin makes for an easy target, the White House may also need to show more is being done about the pricing pressure.
“If the price of gas continues to go up, and there’s no effort meaningfully at the White House to either redefine what that’s about or do something to ameliorate it, I think the issue is going to be harder politically,” he said.
In a CBS/YouGov poll conducted from March 8-11, 63 percent of respondents said they will support sanctions on Russian oil even if gas prices rise—as they have. But when asked who’s responsible for the current increases in gas prices, Biden’s economic policy was the top answer, followed by “oil companies charging more” and the war in Ukraine.
The economy overall also consistently ranks as one of voters’ top issues this election cycle. A CNN poll conducted between January and February this year found 89 percent of respondents feel the economy is “extremely” or “very important” to them this cycle.
Some Democrats have also been arguing the spike in gas prices should be a segue toward fast-tracking renewable energy. “We have to make sure that we’re doubling down on the transition to renewable energy,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) told The Daily Beast, arguing energy independence is a matter of national security.
A group of Democrats, led by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), is also proposing a tax on oil companies’ windfall profits—meaning a tax on their own spike in unexpected earnings. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also said on Wednesday he expects Congress to call on oil and gas CEOs to testify about potential profiteering.
Kessler cautioned that targeting big oil might be getting “off-topic a little bit,” warning it could feed into Republican messaging that Democrats are against increasing domestic oil production.
“Americans want to see more oil produced and they see Democrats as hostile to the oil industry,” he said. “So, how do you show Americans if you’re a Democrat, that yes, we want to get more oil and natural gas out of the ground at this moment in time—while at the same time not reminding voters that you’re hostile to the oil industry and feed into the Republican narrative... That’s where it gets complicated.”
And Republicans are eager to convey their own stance on the issue, at times latching on to the “Putin’s price hike” slogan and spinning it back as the “Biden price hike.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted the Democratic message on gas prices on the Senate floor last week, calling it “laugh-out-loud revisionist history.”
"They’re trying to rebrand the entire increase in gas prices on their watch—listen to this—as an effect of Putin's recent invasion of Ukraine. So, they want to blame 14 months of gas price increases on the last two weeks of turmoil,” he said.
A GOP strategist involved in congressional races told The Daily Beast Republicans plan to point toward the larger trend of rising gas prices over the past year to counter the idea that Putin’s at fault.
“They changed their slogan like four different times,” the source said of Democrats’ message on gas prices. “First it was the pandemic, and then it was corporations. And in between that it was like, ‘Republicans don't have a plan,’ and now it’s ‘Putin’s price hike.’”
Miringoff says he believes, however, if Democrats spin their message right, the push against Putin could be a “unifying” issue rather than a slam dunk from one party to another.
“The bottom line is Biden has to show an effective message and the leadership and the continuity of his arguments, which he really hadn't done in his first year…” he said. “They have to be sensitive to redefining what they’re about and taking this as the foundation going forward. The opportunity is there.”
