Quinten Martinez remembers when fueling up did not require difficult decisions. Pumping gas under a hot South Texas sun, the 28-year-old Amazon delivery driver watched the numbers on the pump tick higher and described the choice now confronting him.

“Is it going to be groceries this week?” Martinez asked. “Is it gonna be getting gas in our tank to go to work?”

Asked about President Donald Trump’s assertion last week that higher gas prices are a small price to pay for the war with Iran, Martinez shook his head.

“I don’t feel like it’s a good trade-off,” he said. “I don’t feel like this is good for anyone.”

Voters across the country, and across the political spectrum, tend to agree. Interviews with voters in several states, along with a fresh round of national polling, reveal an overwhelming sense of frustration that skyrocketing gas prices — a direct result of Trump’s war — are creating serious and sustained financial hardship for America’s working class.

Those concerns are compounding an already difficult political environment that may be worsening for Trump and his Republican Party as early voting gets underway ahead of the November midterm elections. The party holding the White House has historically suffered major losses in midterms. With seven weeks to go until Election Day, Republican candidates at every level are struggling under the added burden of Trump’s weak approval ratings, an unpopular foreign conflict, and an affordability crisis that Trump and his congressional allies had promised to fix.

But when Trump campaigned in North Carolina on Wednesday, he played down the impact of surging gas prices.

“You have a little higher. It’s a very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done,” Trump said of the war, which he describes as critical to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “Remember that. It’s a little more. Frankly, even if it was a lot more.”

Despite the president’s framing, political operatives in both parties say few things may matter more this election year than the price of a gallon of gasoline. And prices are moving sharply in the wrong direction at a time of year when drivers typically get some relief. The national average for a gallon of gas reached $4.48 on Friday, according to AAA, up roughly 17 cents over the last week, 40 cents in a month, and $1.27 from a year ago.

“Gas prices matter because they’re one of the few economic indicators voters experience and see in real time,” said Chris Wilson, a veteran Republican strategist. “The price is literally staring them in the face several times a week. So I wouldn’t minimize the frustration we’re seeing, particularly among working- and middle-class voters.”

Interviews with voters this week found bipartisan frustration and disappointment. Democrats and independents were especially motivated to punish Republicans at the ballot box over their economic hardship, while some of Trump’s working-class supporters pledged to back Republicans this fall even if they were not happy with the president’s leadership on the economy.

Dan Lloyd, a 63-year-old carpenter who voted for Trump, lamented the president’s leadership as he paid $4.39 a gallon to fill up his pickup truck in Mesa, Arizona.

“He hurt himself stepping into this,” Lloyd said of Trump. “Where’s all this oil from Venezuela? I thought we were flush with gas and everything, but no. The American people eat it every time, whether it’s interest rates, food, gasoline.”

Still, he expects to vote Republican in the midterms. “I think the Democratic Party has lost its way,” Lloyd said. “I just feel like the whole system’s on the verge of collapse.”

In sweltering Edinburg, Texas, 52-year-old Kristin Jimenez shrugged off the rising price of gas after filling up her Mercedes. “We’ve paid the same under Republican presidents, we’ve paid this price under Democrat presidents,” said Jimenez, a mother who runs a small business. She plans to vote Republican because they’re the “lesser of two evils,” and she said gas prices are not part of her calculation.

“We don’t mind paying $8 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks, but we have a problem paying four bucks at the pump?” she said. “Make it make sense.”

More than 1,500 miles to the north in central Michigan, 35-year-old Garth Johnson is trying to make ends meet running a deep-cleaning business with several gas-powered vehicles and one machine fueled by diesel, which was $6.79 a gallon as he filled up his SUV.

Johnson voted for Trump but does not know what he will do in November. He does not feel qualified to second-guess the president’s evaluation of the war, but he is feeling the financial pressure in his own life.

“I like a lot of the things he’s done,” Johnson said, adding, “I’m a little guy and I’ve got to live my life.”

Midterm voting was already underway on Friday in Virginia, where 60-year-old engineer Alan Johnson said Trump seems to have “no empathy” for Americans who are struggling financially.

“With the gas prices being what they are and continuing to grow, we’ve got to do something. Hopefully the Democrats can get into office and turn the ship around,” said Johnson, who cast ballots in the morning for Democrats in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House races.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, teacher Brittney Bivins sees surging gas prices as evidence that Trump and his Republican Party are not dealing with the issues that matter most to people like her.

“He really doesn’t care about everyday people,” the 45-year-old said. “He can afford the gas, but most of us can’t. So it feels like he’s not even connected to his own people.”

Bivins, who described herself as an independent, said she is eager to support Democrats this fall — especially the party’s emerging democratic socialist wing.

At a gas station in Lansing, Michigan, Rina Risper spent $50 on eight gallons of premium gas.

“When I rolled up I was in shock, actually, and said, well, maybe I should drink water instead of having that $4.99 bottle of whatever it was I was gonna get,” Risper said. She thinks Trump’s tariffs will make affordability even worse.

“We’re not in Miami. We’re in Lansing, Michigan,” she said. “It’s really going to impact our people.”

Nationwide, the economic strain is reflected in the polling. More than three times as many voters say they are falling behind financially as getting ahead, according to a Fox News survey released Wednesday. By a 15-percentage-point margin, Democrats are considered the party that would better handle inflation and prices at a time when the cost of living and the economy are voters’ top concerns.

The Fox poll found that 61% of voters say gas prices are a major problem for their household, compared with 48% two years ago, while 52% say the same for healthcare costs, compared with 44% in 2024. Majorities also view housing costs and grocery prices as major problems, although neither measure has increased.

Overall, nearly two-thirds of voters (63%) say the administration has made the economy worse, compared with 52% in September 2025, including one-quarter of Republicans. Only 46% of Republicans say the administration has improved the economy, while about one-quarter do not see an impact.

Back in rural South Texas, an area where Trump’s GOP made gains in recent elections, Martinez, the Amazon delivery driver, could not contain his frustration.

Trump “likes to tout that we are the best economy in the world,” Martinez said, but in more rural towns, “you don’t see any of the winning, you don’t see any of the ups that he’s talking about.”

“You just see struggles for day to day life,” he said.

This story was originally published on Fortune.com.