With travel rebounding from pandemic lows and inflation impacting the price of gas nationwide, a new report has found that Republicans and Democrats are paying different prices at the pump.
This month the average price of a gallon of gas is at $3.38, the highest it has been since 2013, according to the Energy Information Administration, NBC News reported.
The report found that with a large number of self-identified Republicans living in rural areas of the country, they are more likely to see a bump in gas prices due to an increased amount of driving that rural residents do and the types of vehicles they drive.
The report used those two factors for its findings, looking at Vehicle Miles Travelled per capita and what states bought one gas-guzzling car more than others.
An analysis from Sivak Applied Research examined VMT in 2018. Of the ten states with the highest VMT, eight voted for former President Donald Trump in the last presidential election.
Those states include Wyoming, Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Indiana, and Tennessee. The other two states in the top 10 were New Mexico and Georgia, which Trump barely lost.
The report then found that of the 10 states with the lowest VMT per capita, only one, Alaska, voted for Trump in 2020. While Alaska is heavily rural, there are not a lot of roads.
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When it comes to the choice of fuel-efficient vehicles, the report found that pickup trucks made up a large percentage of new vehicle sales in Republican states, Experian reported.
The top 10 states where pickup trucks were the most significant percentage of new vehicle sales all voted for Trump in 2020. The states include North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Idaho, Alaska, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and West Virginia.
The report found that the states where pickups were heavily purchased were due to their use in agriculture and necessity instead of personal style.
It was also noted in the report that several Democratic-leaning states have heavy Republican rural areas where residents have to drive farther for trips for necessity.
Overall, the differences between how Republican and Democrat states spend money on gas does not rely on gas prices alone, as they are often higher in Democrat-leaning states. Still, looking at other factors, Republican states were found to spend more at the pump.
