As gas prices surged in the early weeks of the U.S. war with Iran, a Republican Senate candidate in Minnesota had a suggestion for voters struggling at the pump: cut back on the coffee.

“Maybe you take one less trip to Starbucks and so that gas goes a little further,” Michele Tafoya said on a radio show recently, advising listeners to be “patriots” and keep a “stiff upper lip” until fuel prices come back down. 

That comment, from the former NFL sideline reporter-turned-Senate-candidate, comes as public perceptions of the U.S. economy are spiraling — a negative sentiment compounded by President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war with Iran and drive gas prices up to $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022.

Tafoya is hardly alone.

Across key Senate races this cycle, several Republican Senate candidates have downplayed rising costs and defended the president’s economic policies.

Democrats are already moving to weaponize those comments, arguing they underscore a broader disconnect between GOP candidates and economic anxieties.

In a statement to MS NOW, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who chairs the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said the “out-of-touch comments” by GOP Senate hopefuls “show a stunning contempt for Americans who are struggling to get by.”

“Everything costs too much, but instead of taking action to lower prices, Republicans are dismissing voters’ concerns, denying economic reality, and blaming families,” Gillibrand said. “In November, voters will hold Republicans accountable for mocking their concerns while making life more expensive.” 

Republicans, for their part, have been eager to align themselves with Trump’s economic message.

At a campaign stop in March — as the Iran war drove gas prices higher — Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers shrugged off concerns about rising fuel costs.

“We’re gonna be fine, we got plenty of oil,” he said, according to a clip obtained by Punchbowl News.

“We’re going to pump our oil right here in America, and we got plenty,” he added.

Rogers has also repeatedly defended the president’s tariffs, even as economists link those policies with increasing consumer prices. In September, Rogers said that while he does not like prices going up, “I’d rather have good manufacturing jobs here,” according to a local press report.

In North Carolina, GOP nominee Michael Whatley regularly touts Trump’s economic stewardship. 

“We feel pretty good about the economy,” he told Fox News in February.

In January, on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Whatley said Americans had “seen inflation prices come down so dramatically since President Trump took over.” And in February, appearing on the same show, he said the “North Carolina economy is getting back on its feet.”

“We are seeing right now that jobs are being created, paychecks are bigger, costs are coming down,” he said. 

Those comments could easily come back to haunt Whatley, as his Democratic opponent — former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper — makes affordability central to his campaign.

It’s a similar story in Ohio, where incumbent Sen. Jon Husted — who is seeking a full term in the upper chamber — has defended Trump’s trade policies. In October, Husted argued Trump was making “great progress” in taking on China, saying the country had been “ripping off America for decades” and it was “time to stand up to them,” according to a local press report.

In December, Husted also suggested there are three ways to address affordability concerns: “earn more, keep more of what you earn, and drive down prices.” He insisted the GOP Congress and Trump were doing just that. 

Recent polling, however, suggests Americans aren’t buying it.

In December, long before the president opted to launch a war on Iran that led to higher gas prices, polling showed that only 36% of U.S. adults approved of the Trump’s handling of the economy. By late March, that figure had dropped to 29%, with 62% disapproving of Trump’s economic moves.

And it’s not just perception. Recent jobs reports show hiring on the whole has become stagnant, with the U.S. at times shedding jobs in recent months. The unemployment rate has also ticked slightly upward over the last year. And while the inflation rate has steadied — holding above 2% — that’s only slightly lower than the final months of the Biden presidency.

Of course, these GOP candidates aren’t completely ignoring reality.

On her campaign website, Tafoya lists cutting costs for prescriptions and utilities among her priorities. Whatley says, in a video, he’ll fight to help families “make ends meet.” And Husted has a video saying he is “fighting to rein in costs” and make essentials “more affordable.” 

In a statement shared with MS NOW, Husted’s campaign manager Drew Thompson also argued the Ohio senator had helped pass “real solutions” to address cost of living concerns, invoking the GOP’s reconciliation bill from last year — which he dubbed the “largest tax cut in history.”

“If Sherrod Brown had a real solution to lower costs for Ohioans, he had 32 years in Washington to implement it,” Thompson added, referencing Husted’s Democratic opponent. “He didn’t.”

A spokesperson for the Rogers campaign also noted the candidate has rolled out a housing affordability plan and recently objected to a report that the congressional GOP may try to cut federal health care spending to free up funding for the Iran war and immigration enforcement.

“Democrats will lie left and right to hide how extreme and out-of-touch with reality their candidates really are,” Rogers communications director, Alyssa Brouillet, said in a statement. “Mike Rogers will fix everything Michigan Democrats broke in their single-party reign, from his plan to make housing more affordable, to fighting to bring back jobs, and supporting historic tax cuts for working families–which every single one of his competitors opposed.”

As for his comments backing the president’s trade policies, Rogers’ campaign pointed to investments in Michigan that they argue are the byproduct of the tariffs — including GM’s plans to convert a plant near Detroit.

And the Whatley campaign accused Cooper of supporting Biden as he “pushed inflation to a four-decade high — sending prices to levels Americans hadn’t seen in decades.” 

“In the Senate, Cooper would be just another Democrat roadblock to President Trump’s mission to restore prosperity,” Whatley spokesperson, Danielle Alvarez, wrote in a statement. “Michael Whatley will support tax relief for working families to strengthen the economy and put more money into family budgets across North Carolina.”

The Senate Republican campaign arm — the National Republican Senatorial Committee — declined to comment on this piece. But a spokesperson pointed to comments that some Democratic candidates in key Senate races made touting the economy when Biden was in office.

In the final stretch of the 2024 presidential contents, for instance, Cooper argued Vice President Kamala Harris deserved credit “for the fact that our economy is the best in the world right now: low unemployment, high stock market.” 

(At the same time, Cooper noted “everyday people still are hurting because of high costs.”)

And in 2022, Rep. Chris Pappas — who is now running for Senate in New Hampshire — insisted the U.S. is seeing a “job market that is stronger than any time during the last 40 years,” with economic growth that hadn’t been seen “since the early 1980s.” (At the same time, Pappas acknowledged the “headwinds are significant,” including high inflation.)

But voters tend to have a short memory. The political landscape has shifted. And these comments from GOP candidates present Democrats with a clear opportunity.

Republicans, who hold unified control of Washington, are betting the economy improves before Election Day. And they’re hoping their comments cheering on Trump and his economic ideas don’t come back to bite them. 

Even if the economy improves, however, Democrats know well the risks of touting improving economic conditions when gains aren’t evenly spread among Americans.

And if the economy gets worse, a party that has relied on economic messaging to help them beat Democrats could be in real trouble. Seemingly innocuous statements touting Trump’s economy could suddenly become potent political fodder.

As Whatley said last June, in remarks tailormade for a political attack ad, “President Trump campaigned on bringing down gasoline prices, grocery prices, and housing prices.”

“How are we doing?” Whatley asked.

JM Rieger contributed to this report.

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