East Coast Election Results Suggest Trump Energy Policy Widely Unpopular

Electric bills are rising, and consumers are not happy. So, on November 4, voters said it was time for a change.

New Jersey, Virginia, and Georgia are very different states, but all three shared a big issue throughout this year’s elections: voters want action to stop the rise in their electric bills. “President Donald Trump made slashing energy costs a top theme of his administration – but Democrats are suddenly winning the messaging war,” reads a staff analysis from the online news site Politico. “Lawmakers and analysts said Wednesday that the partisan turnabout on energy affordability is one of the prime takeaways from the decisive Democratic electoral wins in Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia, where the minority party pounded the rising electricity prices that consumers are paying on Trump’s watch.”

Energy Bills: A Kitchen Table Issue in 2025

“Decisive victories for Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey, Abigail Spanberger in Virginia, and Democratic candidates for Georgia Public Service Commission prove that electricity bills are the kitchen table issue driving Democratic wins in 2025 and beyond,” said Sara Schreiber, the Senior Vice President for Campaigns, League of Conservation Voters (LCV). “In Georgia, New Jersey, and Virginia there was a clear line drawn between candidates responding to voters’ concerns about energy costs with real solutions, and those toeing the MAGA party line. Candidates who ignore rising energy costs do so at their own peril. This election was a decisive rejection of the Trump Administration’s ban on clean energy, multi-million-dollar taxpayer bailouts for expensive dirtier energy sources like coal, and other ineffective proposals that will make costs go even higher.”

She concluded, “The public understands that actively blocking the development of the cheapest and fastest-to-deploy power sources–wind, solar, and battery storage – only leads to more expensive options dominating the grid.”

Big Wins for Environmental Champions in Georgia

Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger in Virginia both exceeded the polling predictions in their margin of victory. However, the surprise of election night may have been the big wins for two Democratic challengers who knocked off incumbents for their seats on red-leaning Georgia’s Public Service Commission (PSC).

The PSC is Georgia’s equivalent of North Carolina’s Utilities Commission, except that the PSC’s members are directly elected by the voters. Two of the PSC’s five seats were up for election this year. The two winning candidates, Democrats Peter Hubbard and Dr. Alicia Johnson, successfully challenged two of the PSC members who had repeatedly voted to raise electric rates, hitting the average Georgia family with over $500 more per year in electric bills. Hubbard and Johnson made rising costs central to their campaign with a statewide “My Power Bill’s Too High” tour in the closing days of the race.

Virginia Wins Fuel Clean Energy

In blue-leaning swing state Virginia, Democratic candidates swept the statewide races for governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general, and solidified their party’s control of both chambers of the Virginia state legislature. Once installed in office, they are poised to reaffirm Virginia’s participation in the multistate Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. They are also committed to building out clean energy initiatives in solar and wind stalled by the outgoing governor as well as Trump’s fanatical opposition to wind power. 

Virginia Governor-elect Spanberger and New Jersey Governor-elect Sherrill “both made affordability concerns and skyrocketing electricity bills central to their campaigns,” noted the Politico analysis. “Power prices in Virginia – home to the nation’s highest concentration of data centers – have surged 13 percent in the past year, while New Jersey’s prices climbed 21 percent, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department. Both states have seen plans for huge new wind farms threatened by the Trump administration’s opposition to the technology.”

Part of A Larger Movement

Our affiliates at the national LCV and state affiliates in New Jersey, Virginia, and Georgia all made large investments in public education campaigns. These included campaigns on rising electric bills and their connection to reduced investment in clean renewable energy and the high costs of fossil fuel infrastructure. Their successes provide an encouraging lesson for North Carolina contests on the ballot in 2026. We will work with our partners in other states to learn what went well, and how we can improve and implement similar strategies in our state next year. All so we can protect North Carolina’s natural resources and its people. 

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