On Wednesday, the NC General Assembly returned to Raleigh for a special session to address rising gas prices, which continue to skyrocket as a result of Trump’s war with Iran. 

The good news is that the legislature agreed to suspend the state’s gas tax, which (if all goes well) could lower gas prices by roughly 30 cents per gallon. Gov. Stein signed the bill into law on Friday, which should offer modest but desperately needed relief for working people who have been struggling with high prices for quite some time now. 

The bad news is that Republicans decided to offer this relief for only a few weeks– just long enough for them to get through the midterms. Unfortunately, they also blocked any and all attempts to protect North Carolinians from corporate price gouging and refused to take up any other measures that would have lowered costs. As a result, Republicans were unable to guarantee that the tax relief will actually trickle down to consumers at all. 

It’s too little, too late for a legislature that has consistently prioritized politics over public service. They passed a quick talking point to help their own campaigns, and punted on the substantive reforms that would have offered long-term relief for working families. 

“Session after session we’ve seen that when it comes to protecting their own power, Republicans will move with lightning speed,” wrote Democratic Senate leader Sydney Batch. “But when your family needs help, they’ll wait until it’s politically convenient for them.” 

This is the status quo for the NC General Assembly under Republican leadership. After all, this is the same legislature that didn’t pass a state budget for three years, but found a way to pass Trump’s gerrymandered electoral maps in just 9 days.  

As Republicans have been delaying to address the affordability crisis, Democrats have been fighting to lower costs. Gov. Josh Stein has already moved to lower diesel fuel costs for NC farmers, which will help lower food costs for all North Carolinians. Legislative Democrats also proposed several pieces of legislation to help lower costs and raise wages, but Republicans have blocked or refused to take up those measures.   

North Carolina knows real leadership when they see it. And they see that this legislature is more concerned with hoarding power than delivering results for the people they were elected to serve. 

Real leadership would have meant speaking out last year when Trump’s tariffs were crushing North Carolinians. More than speaking out, it would have meant acting on a Democratic proposal to offer tariff relief for the state. Republicans tabled the measure. 

Real leadership would have been acting on gas prices when they started to spike in the spring rather than waiting until four weeks before the election. Republicans had an opportunity to act during a short session this summer– instead they passed a bill that was meant to give their party more power over elections at the expense of North Carolinians’ voting rights. 

And real leadership would have been passing a budget when it was due– not a year later after schools, students, and teachers were forced to scrape by. 

North Carolinians need lower gas prices, but more importantly, they need leaders who will actually show up and tackle the cost-of-living crisis every day, not just when it’s politically convenient. 

Those leaders are still out there. Many of them will be on your ballot this fall. Let’s send true public servants to Raleigh this November, not politicians who care more about saving their job than actually doing it.