Marcus Says $20 Burritos Won’t Sink GOP in 2026 as Gas Prices Stay Manageable

1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 7

$20 burritos and other price complaints are unlikely to be decisive against Republicans in 2026, David Marcus argues, because voters are not treating affordability as the all-consuming issue it was in 2024.
Gas prices briefly surged for about three weeks this spring and risked becoming a visceral political problem, but they later eased into a range voters dislike without seeing as intolerable.
Detroit voters Marcus spoke with last month were more focused on signs of local revival than on prices, a mood he links to Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s weak showing in the city against Haley Stevens.
Gen Z frustration is real, he writes, but it centers more broadly on the higher cost of entering adulthood than on viral examples like expensive DoorDash meals or social-media burrito debates.
The broader test for Republicans is whether the Iran war pushes fuel costs back into a gut-level issue; absent a sharper price shock, Marcus says the 2026 choice still favors the GOP.