US gasoline at $4.27 a gallon is above any earlier Election Day week since 1990

The average US retail price of regular gasoline was $4.269 a gallon in the week of October 26, higher than the price in the Election Day week of any year since 1990, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The highest in that run was $3.796, in the week of November 7, 2022, a gap of $0.473 (computed; prices are not adjusted for inflation).

The latest reading is $1.23 above a year ago

The EIA's weekly survey put regular gasoline at $4.269 a gallon on October 26, down $0.015 from the week before and $1.234 above the same week a year earlier, according to its Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update. A year earlier, on October 27, 2025, the price was $3.035 in the EIA's weekly series, so the increase from a year earlier is 40.7% (computed).

The price has eased from its recent peak. It was $4.354 on October 5, $4.331 on October 12 and $4.284 on October 19, the series shows, so it has fallen in each of the three weeks since October 5, by $0.085 in total (computed).

What earlier Election Day weeks cost

The EIA's weekly series for regular gasoline starts in 1990. In the Monday readings for the 18 Election Day weeks from 1990 to 2024, the highest was $3.796 in 2022, followed by $3.492 in 2012 and $3.069 in 2024 (our computation from the series). The most recent presidential Election Day week, in 2024, had a price of $3.069, which makes this year's latest reading $1.200 higher (computed).

The comparison has limits. The series is in current dollars, so a price from 1990 and a price from 2026 are not directly comparable without an adjustment for inflation, and the reading for the Election Day week itself is not out yet. The EIA lists November 3, 2026 as the date of its next release.

The next reading

The EIA's next weekly update, due on November 3, will show where prices stood at the start of Election Day week. The October 26 survey does not say what is behind the price, and the EIA page we used does not give a cause for the three weekly declines.

We would read pump prices as a lagging signal for energy, not a verdict

This is the Markets desk's view. We think the useful question is what the retail price is telling us about energy, not the date it falls on. Gasoline at $4.269 is a household cost, and the three weekly declines suggest the peak may be behind it. Our reading is conditional: if crude stays lower in the coming weeks, we would expect retail gasoline to keep drifting down with a delay, which would ease the pressure on consumers and on the inflation figures that central banks watch.

The threat is the reverse. A renewed rise in crude would reach pump prices again, and the price is still $1.234 above a year earlier. We would weigh the weekly EIA readings over several weeks rather than any single Monday, and we would change our view if prices rose for three weeks in a row.

The view in this final section is FinanceInTime's editorial opinion, for information only. It is not investment, tax, legal or other advice, and it does not take your circumstances into account. Forecasts are uncertain and past results do not guarantee future ones.