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Power bills may be among the factors that determine what party is in power in statehouses and governors’ mansions in 2026.
The Nov. 4 New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races are being closely watched, as they spotlight issues that could determine how campaigns nationwide approach the 2026 midterm elections.
In both mid-Atlantic states’ elections, voters’ chief concerns include taxes, health care, job generation, and inflation in the context of affordability, with spiking grocery prices, rising housing costs, and skyrocketing utility bills among their sources of anxiety.
With New Jersey customers paying on average 19 percent more for electricity in August 2025 than in August 2024, and Virginia utilities—after imposing 30 percent hikes from 2020 to 2023—receiving approval for 15 percent to 21 percent rate increases in the next two years, power bills may be among the factors that determine what party is in power in statehouses and governors’ mansions in 2026.
New Jersey and Virginia voters are demanding that candidates address electricity rates, a potential harbinger of elections to come, with an Oct. 20 Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs poll showing that 36 percent of U.S. adults are stressed over utility costs.
In both states, Democratic candidates are promoting green energy development—wind, solar, nuclear—associated with former President Joe Biden’s policies. They say the Republican-led adoption of the 2026 fiscal year budget, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, will exacerbate electricity inflation because it terminates tax credits for renewable energies.
Republican gubernatorial hopefuls seeking to succeed term-limited governors in New Jersey and Virginia are aligned with President Donald Trump’s energy policies—which forsake renewables, especially wind—for natural gas and, in Virginia, coal. The president has declared an energy emergency and signed executive orders to increase production of fossil fuels, which he has said will lower energy costs.
That is not the only New Jersey–Virginia link. Both are served by PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest regional transmission organization, with ratepayers in New Jersey and Virginia among the 67 million people across 13 states paying $14.7 billion for grid expansions, according to Monitoring Analytics.
A September Natural Resources Defense Council analysis states that PJM customers are already paying $20 to $30 more monthly because of increasing demand. The additional $14.7 billion “translates to a $70-per-month increase for the average household,” it reads.
This underscores the reality that electricity rates are calibrations of many costs influenced by many factors and that while governors appoint state public utility commissioners and direct regulatory oversight, their efficacy in lowering utility bills is limited, despite campaign pledges....