Expensive gas, Christmas trees — everything? Blame Biden, NC Republicans say.
Have high grocery bills made trips to the store a dread? North Carolina’s Republican candidates have noticed those rising prices, too, and it might give them an advantage in the 2022 elections.
And it’s not just food costs.
One Republican congressman from North Carolina recently called out all kinds of sticker shock, putting the blame on Democrats — from costly Christmas trees to higher heating bills and pricier holiday feasts.
Few political issues hit more closely to home than the value of the dollar, particularly around the holidays. With grocery prices continuing to increase in Charlotte — and inflation rising at its fastest pace in nearly 40 years, according to an analysis by The New York Times — Republican candidates across North Carolina are telling voters to blame the Biden administration.
Economists are divided on how much Biden’s spending packages are responsible for rising inflation. Regardless, many Republicans argue that the president has pumped too much money into the economy and fueled a rise in energy costs, and that both of which have devalued the average worker’s paycheck.
What’s more, they say the Biden administration is too out of touch to give voters a good explanation. From across the state, Republicans have pointed to inflation as a major issue going into 2022.
While he is on the road campaigning for U.S. Senate, former Gov. Pat McCrory said inflation is the number one issue he hears from voters.
“Biden is pretending it is not existing,” McCrory said during an interview with the Observer last week. “I think he needs to go to the grocery store and go to the gas station and fill up his own gas tank. He’s removed from reality.”
What Republicans are saying
Savannah Viar, the Southeast Regional Communications Director for the Republican National Committee, said Republican candidates, from Congress to the General Assembly, are likely to hit on inflation in 2022.
On social media, candidates have already begun.
Rep. Greg Murphy, who is running for reelection, wrote on Twitter that under Biden, “... you have to spend more to get less on everything — from gasoline and electricity to groceries and baby formula.”
Responding to a CNN article about inflation, Republican Congressional candidate Christine Villaverde wrote, “No matter how many times they try to put a positive spin on inflation, it is hurting Americans ... period!”
Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican of Mecklenburg County, put it simply on his Facebook page: “The strain that American families are feeling on their budgets right now is Biden’s fault.”
Some Democrats respond
While Republicans are “cheering on” the rising costs, “President Biden and Democrats are interested in governing and lowering costs for middle-class families, and that’s what voters can count on hearing heading into 2022,” said North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Bobbie Richardson in an emailed statement.
She added that Democrats are “passing legislation to lower costs on everything from health care to child care, cut taxes for working families, and drive down gas prices, all without raising taxes on people making over $400,000.”
It is unclear how much those arguments will hold up by the fall of 2022, when North Carolina voters will vote in the general election for U.S. House, U.S. Senate, the General Assembly and more.
Prices could decline by then, flatten out — or get worse. Along with that, voters could get used to the higher prices to an extent that it could diminish their anger heading into the polls, said Mitch Kokai, senior political analyst at the John Locke Foundation, a conservative-leaning North Carolina political think tank.
Kokai said it is in many ways too early to tell the true impact of inflation on the 2022 elections. If prices continue to rise into next fall, though, he said it could give Republicans a significant leg up.
“It will be a campaign issue, but the extent to which it is an important campaign issue depends on what happens with the economy between now and when people are actually voting,” he said, adding that most of the campaigns’ energy will revolve around the primary elections until mid-May.
During her visit to Charlotte earlier this month, Vice President Kamala Harris told the Observer that the COVID-19 pandemic, more than Biden administration spending, was to blame. She added that Biden’s proposed social policy and climate bill, called the Build Back Better Act, would reduce cost-of-living expenses for many Americans on things like child care.
“During these almost two years, (the pandemic) had a real impact on the production of goods, on the delivery of goods and the distribution of goods,” she said. “That does have an impact on price, and so let’s deal with the real causes.”
Additionally, the administration is opening up key ports that have struggled to cope with supply-chain issues brought on by the pandemic.
Carter Wrenn, a North Carolina political operative and former aide to the late Republican U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, said he hasn’t been impressed with the Democrats’ response.
“I think they’re telling themselves what they want to hear, which is ‘Hey it’s going to level off, it’s going to go back down, it’s not the spending and the borrowing that’s the problem,’” he said. “If they’re wrong, they’re going to have a real problem.”
With elections about a year away, will it matter?
Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University, said the last period of high inflation in the 1970s and early 1980s played a major role in politics at the time, and contributed to Ronald Reagan’s win over Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Many voters who remember those years will be fearful of a return to high inflation. Young people may be equally concerned, having never seen a period of significant inflation.
Still, he said the economy was in much worse shape overall in the 1970s and early ‘80s. That, plus the unpredictability of COVID-19’s economic impact, make predictions difficult.
What happens could make a big difference for both parties. North Carolina is one of a few swing states where the outcome of the U.S. Senate race is uncertain — and could tip the scales over which party controls the chamber.
Democratic House candidates will have to face similar concerns as well. North Carolina’s Supreme Court delayed the primary elections until May 2022, and the general election will be held in November.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
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