Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accused Democrats of trying to use pain at the pump against Republicans while carrying a climate record that conservatives say points toward higher fuel costs.
The Texas Republican made the case Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” arguing that gas prices have become a convenient campaign issue for Democrats who previously embraced energy policies he said would make gasoline more expensive.
“And to be clear, the Democrats who are campaigning, this is the one issue they have, all of them want gas prices to be higher,” Cruz told Sean Hannity. “Remember, these are the same Democrats who said they wanted $10-a-gallon gas.”
That argument now runs through the Texas Senate race, where Democrat James Talarico has called for immediate tax relief on gasoline and diesel after previously filing climate legislation aimed at steep emissions reductions.
Talarico stood at a Carrollton gas station last weekend and challenged Republican Senate candidates to support suspending the federal gas tax and federal diesel tax.
“I’m proposing that we suspend the federal gas tax, which would drop the price of gas by 18 cents immediately, providing Texans with some much-needed relief,” Talarico said. “I’m also proposing suspending the federal diesel tax, which will save those who use diesel $170 a year.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX) has also endorsed ending the federal gas tax permanently, leaving both parties’ Texas Senate candidates arguing for some form of gas-tax relief as fuel costs become a campaign fight.
“I know people need money in their pockets,” Paxton remarked Monday in Fort Worth. “I think gas prices are high. Let’s give them the opportunity to, at least for the time being, to have a better deal.”
Cruz used Talarico as his clearest example of a Democrat campaigning on cheaper gas while carrying a record Republicans can cast as hostile to oil and gas.
“You look at James Talarico, the extreme left-winger running in Texas — he has said that he wants oil and gas to go the way of the cassette tape, that he wants to dismantle capitalism,” Cruz said.
In 2021, Talarico filed HB 2206, the Texas Climate Action Act, which would have required Texas to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 to half of 1990 levels and by 2050 to 10 percent of those 1990 levels.
Talarico has told CBS News that his goal was not to damage the oil and gas industry, pointing to his family ties to the field and saying his objection was to emissions.
“I support our oil and gas industry. I had family members who worked in the industry. I went to public schools here in Texas, funded by the oil and gas industry. What I’m opposing is greenhouse emissions,” Talarico told CBS News.
He argued that Texas could keep growing its energy sector while reducing pollution, using carbon capture and ExxonMobil as his example.
“There are ways that we can support our oil and gas industry while limiting those emissions,” Talarico added. “In fact, ExxonMobil has been a leader in carbon capture, ensuring that our oil and gas industry can continue to grow while capturing these harmful emissions so we can both grow our Texas energy industry and protect our planet.”
Talarico also said he would oppose Washington leaders who interfered with Texas energy, including both oil and gas and renewables.
“I’m against any leaders in Washington who are messing with our energy industry, whether it’s oil and gas or whether it’s renewables,” Talarico stated.
CBS News also asked Talarico whether his 2021 bill’s language about a green-economy transition meant oil and gas jobs would be affected. Talarico said the bill never received a hearing and was intended to be shaped through negotiations with Republicans, Democrats and stakeholders.
“This is why I was trying to work with Republicans and Democrats alike in the legislature to make this bill a reality,” Talarico explained, adding that the proposal “wasn’t even given a hearing.”
Cruz put current gas prices into a comparison between President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden, saying prices were higher than at the beginning of Trump’s second term but below the level he associated with Biden.
“When Joe Biden was president, gas prices were five bucks a gallon. When Trump came into office, they dropped nationally to $3 a gallon. And today, they’re about $4 a gallon in the national average,” Cruz said.
“So, they are still substantially less than they were under Joe Biden, but they’re not as low as they were the first year of the second Trump term,” he continued.
Hannity had framed the discussion around Democrats’ Green New Deal-style agenda, saying it included government-backed jobs, daycare, salary, retirement and health care, and citing a $212 trillion estimate.
Cruz also tied energy politics to Iran, saying Trump understood the threat of the ayatollah acquiring a nuclear weapon and describing the current conflict as more limited than the danger posed by a nuclear-armed regime.
“If you look at, number one, what would happen if the ayatollah got a nuclear weapon? And I think the odds are unacceptably high that he would use that nuclear weapon and he would use it to murder hundreds of thousands of Americans,” Cruz warned.
Rather than describing a wider war, Cruz said the Trump administration was using financial pressure to hurt Iran’s regime.
“Primarily, what we’re engaged in is an economic blockade that is imposing crushing economic consequences on Iran and that is weakening the regime significantly,” Cruz said.
Paxton’s Fort Worth remarks Monday also touched immigration policy during a conversation with Javier Palomarez, president and CEO of the United States Hispanic Business Council. Paxton said a federal work authorization program would be acceptable only if border security came first and the arrangement benefited Americans.
“Fundamentally, we’ve got to make sure, as you said, that we secure the border first, and if it gets unsecured, then the rest of the deal is off,” Paxton stated. “Look, we should have an America First policy here. We need to have a policy that benefits the Americans that are here.”
Talarico has also tried to clean up earlier rhetoric during his Senate run, including a past statement that God was non-binary.
“There are some statements that I have made that I certainly regret. There are statements that I have made where I have missed the mark. I will be the first to admit that,” Talarico acknowledged in May.
Left-wing streamer Hasan Piker told students Wednesday at the University of Texas at Austin that Talarico’s supporters should keep him from governing like a moderate Democrat if he wins.
“Hopefully, after James Talarico wins, we’ve got to hold him to account,” Piker told the crowd. “We’ve got to make sure that he doesn’t become another, ‘do nothing Democrat’ ‘business as usual,’ and we’ve got to keep up that pressure.”
Piker said the left would need to remind Talarico that its organizing helped put him in power.
“We have to remind him that we are the force that backed him both early on,” Piker added. “We are the force that allowed him to win this seat of power and if he wants to maintain it, he’s got to play ball. Right?”
Cruz said Republicans should counter Democratic attacks on gas prices by pointing to the economy, including what he described as record median family income and record-low poverty.
“The corporate media will never report that, but those are both objective facts,” Cruz concluded. “And I think that’s a powerful case to make to the American people.”
