Sandra Smith warns Republicans: Stop letting Democrats own the affordability crisis

The latest numbers are making Sandra Smith’s warning harder for Republicans to ignore.

As of Wednesday morning, AAA placed the national average for regular gasoline at approximately $4.04 per gallon—up from $3.14 one year ago. Oil prices were also climbing again after attacks on vessels near two crucial Middle Eastern shipping routes revived fears of further supply disruptions.

Meanwhile, the government’s July inflation report is due Wednesday morning. Economists expect it to show that prices remain stubbornly above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

In other words, “affordability” is not just a consultant’s favorite campaign word. It is what Americans see every time they buy groceries, pay rent, open an electric bill or watch the numbers spin on a gas pump.

Smith: How in the world are Republicans letting far left, radical socialist Democrats own affordability thing? Trump handed, after his first term, Biden gasoline prices at $2.39…. Where were these people then? pic.twitter.com/8nFZ6D4st5

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 11, 2026

And Smith cannot understand why Republicans are allowing Democrats—especially socialist Democrats—to grab the microphone.

During Tuesday’s edition of Fox News’ The Five, Smith delivered an unmistakable warning to the GOP:

“How in the world are Republicans letting Democrats, far-left, radical socialist Democrats, own the affordability thing?”

Smith made the comments during a discussion of Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong, a progressive Democrat whose proposals include a $20 minimum wage, state-guaranteed paid leave and a one-year moratorium on new AI data-center construction.

Hong has struggled to secure endorsements from two of the country’s most prominent progressives, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But Smith argued that the more important political story is how candidates such as Hong are presenting themselves as the champions of financially squeezed voters.

“It’s special that Bernie Sanders and AOC can’t warm up to Hong,” Smith said, “but I think there’s a wake-up call here.”

She then traced the recent history of gasoline prices, arguing that the cost increases began under former President Joe Biden—and that Republicans should not allow Democrats to perform a sudden costume change and return as the Guardians of the Grocery Budget.

“Trump handed, after his first term, Biden gas prices at $2.39. He ran those prices up to a record $5 a gallon at the pump. Where were these people then? Now they want those policies back and more.”

Gasoline did reach a record national average slightly above $5 in June 2022. Smith noted that prices subsequently declined, dropped below $3 before the latest fighting with Iran and have now climbed back above $4.

“This is while we’re in the middle of the war ensuring that Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons,” she said.

Smith’s point was not that Republicans should pretend every current price increase is Biden’s fault. It was precisely the opposite: Republicans now control Washington, so simply pointing backward will no longer satisfy voters looking at today’s bills.

“For Republicans to not own the affordability problem that Americans are suffering right now is a problem,” Smith said. “They need to acknowledge that that happened and that happened under the last presidency. But now we’ve got to own it.”

There it is—the sentence Republican candidates may not enjoy hearing but desperately need to understand.

Joe Biden is no longer president. Americans remember the inflation explosion on his watch, but they are not going to spend November voting on a receipt from three years ago. They will vote on the receipt in their hands.

Recent polling shows just how dangerous the issue has become for the GOP. A July Pew Research Center survey found Americans virtually divided over which party they trust on economic policy: 37% chose Democrats and 36% chose Republicans.

That is an astonishing position for Republicans to occupy against a Democratic Party increasingly populated by politicians promising more government, more spending, higher wages by decree and new taxes on the people expected to pay for it all.

A separate Fox News poll found that three-quarters of voters rated the economy negatively, while roughly the same share said inflation had created financial hardship for their families. Fifty-four percent expected the economy to worsen over the next year.

Democrats understand the opportunity. Their message is simple: Everything costs too much, Republicans are in charge, therefore Republicans are responsible.

Never mind that their proposed remedy is often another government program, another mandate and another army of clipboard-carrying regulators. If the political sales pitch works, the fine print may not matter until after Election Day.

Smith used Hong’s agenda to demonstrate what Republicans should be challenging.

“She’s talking about state-guaranteed paid leave. She’s talking about raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Do you know what that’s going to do to small businesses? How many people that’s gonna put out of work?”

Smith continued:

“A one-year moratorium on new AI data center construction. She wants to raise income taxes on couples making just over $400,000 a year. So these are the solutions she’s offering at a very sensitive time for this affordability moment.”

Hong argues that pausing data-center construction would allow Wisconsin to determine the projects’ effects on electricity rates, water supplies and taxpayers. She has also proposed requiring data centers to pay more of their own costs rather than relying upon public subsidies.

Republicans can debate those policies. They can explain why hiking labor costs may reduce hiring, why tax increases eventually find their way into consumer prices and why government-guaranteed benefits are never actually free.

But first, they must convince voters that they recognize the problem.

Telling a family struggling with food and housing costs that the stock market is doing nicely is not an affordability plan. Telling a young voter upset over a $20 burrito to eat ramen and get a job—as Rep. Dan Crenshaw recently did—is not exactly a Reaganesque appeal to the next generation.

Voters do not want to be lectured about why they should feel prosperous. They want to know what Republicans intend to do about housing, energy, insurance, health care and food.

Democrats have bundled those anxieties into one politically potent word: affordability. Smith’s message to Republicans is that they had better take it back.

“Republicans beware,” she warned. “Don’t let them keep owning this affordability message when the numbers clearly show these prices ran upward at the last administration and the onus is on Republicans to get them back down come midterm elections.”

She is right.

Republicans possess a powerful case against the socialist solution: Higher taxes, wage mandates and expensive government promises will not make America less costly. They can turn an affordability crisis into a full-blown employment crisis.

But a rebuttal is not a governing agenda—and blaming Biden has a rapidly approaching expiration date.

The voters already know everything is expensive. The party that shows it understands why, offers a credible path downward and speaks like it has recently visited a supermarket will have the advantage in November.

The other party can continue holding press conferences about how wonderful the economic statistics look.

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