Ted Cruz’s Biden-Era Reminder Explains Why He’s So Optimistic About Midterms

The mainstream media has spent an awful lot of time lately harping on rising gas prices, even as costs have begun to moderate in recent days.

But left-leaning journalists didn’t devote the same amount of diligence to covering the skyrocketing price Americans were paying at the pump under Joe Biden.

With the midterms rapidly approaching, however, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is putting things in perspective.

As The Hill reported:

“I don’t think national security decisions should be done based on short-term political considerations,” He told CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” referencing the U.S.-Iran conflict. “I don’t think it’s going to impact the midterms materially I’ve seen no data that suggests that this is having a big impact on the midterms.”

“What I’ll tell you — let’s take gas prices. So, under [former President] Biden, gas prices nationally were between five and six bucks a gallon [President] Trump came in and we cut them basically in half, to about three bucks a gallon,” the Texas Republican continued. “Now, with the conflict in the Middle East, gas prices have gone up to about 4.50 a gallon, so we’ve given away about half of the decrease we had.”

That’s just one of the reasons some pundits say the GOP is in a particularly good spot, considering the historical disadvantage the party in power has during the first midterm of a presidency:

🚨 WOW! It’s just been announced that Democrats are more than 5 points BEHIND their 2018 Congressional polls, ahead of Republicans by just 2 points among registered voters — Harvard

In the last midterm with Trump in office, Dems were up by almost 8 POINTS

KEEP REDISTRICTING,… pic.twitter.com/qopaeG9iYs

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 2, 2026

It shouldn’t even be this close. This should be a 70/30 split in favor of Republicans.

— American Alpha (@AmericanAlphaX) June 2, 2026

🚨 NEW: @SpeakerJohnson tells me that the midterms are "a contrast between COMMON SENSE, which Republicans represent, and CRAZY."

"The Democrats have the radical, insurgent Left — the OPEN MARXISTS — running for offices… across the country." @SatAmericaFNC ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/np3KIG14US

— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) May 30, 2026

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump remains focused on what he sees as a bigger priority than the election, as Politico reported last week:

“I don’t care about the midterms,” Trump said today during his 12th Cabinet meeting. The comment came as the president spoke about why he hasn’t moved faster to end the war with Iran. But the remark also comes two weeks after the president told reporters “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation” when approaching those negotiations.

Even in the context of the war, the striking admissions point to Trump’s unexpected focus during his second term, in which he has become embroiled in a series of conflicts abroad — going to war with Iran, capturing Venezuela’s leader, escalating tensions with Cuba and threatening to annex Greenland, to name the major ones — amid plummeting approval and skyrocketing prices, all as his party faces hurricane-force headwinds with the midterms rapidly approaching.

And here’s what Cruz had to say about the president’s handling of the operation in Iran: