By admin 
During the 2026 Republican National Convention in Dallas — the party’s first in a midterm election — President Donald Trump aimed to galvanize voters to support Republican candidates with an enticing offer: $5,000 for every American adult if Republicans keep the U.S. Senate and House.
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“Just pretend like I’m on the ballot again,” Trump told supporters during his address.
The checks are likely illegal under federal law.
But the pitch comes as Trump’s approval ratings, and overall support for Republican candidates, is dwindling as Americans are paying higher prices at the gas pump due to the ongoing war with Iran.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom called on the president in a statement to “drop this ridiculous scheme.”
“If Trump and congressional Republicans want to put money back in people’s pockets, they know where to start: pay Americans back the more than $108 billion Trump-Iran war surcharge that families, farmers, and small businesses have already been stuck with thanks to the war’s entirely predictable effect on gas and diesel prices,” Newsom said in a statement.
Brown University’s energy cost tracker reports the average American household has paid more than $800 in additional fuel costs since the start of the war. It has gone on for over 200 days, and gas prices have skyrocketed, especially in the state of California where gas is the most expensive out of anywhere in the country. This crisis comes amid growing affordability and cost of living concerns that are front of mind for voters this year.
In a poll from the Pew Research Center, economic issues are the number one topic that voters are considering while casting their ballot this year. It was also the most important factor for voters in the 2024 presidential election.
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Newsom’s office said the $5,000 checks amount to “paying voters for their votes” and follow a series of promises the president hasn’t delivered. Among those were $2,000 checks for tariffs, $5,000 Department of Governmental Efficiency checks and $1,776 checks to military personnel.
The president has offered no additional details on where the funding for the midterm checks would come from, but Vice President JD Vance suggested it would come from tariff revenue.
If paid out, the state’s nearly 30 million adults eligible for the checks would cost the federal government about $136.5 billion.
The outcome Trump is hoping for was made slightly more difficult by the passage of Proposition 50, which was championed by Newsom and approved by California voters in 2025.
Prop. 50 was a special election ballot initiative to redraw congressional districts in response to controversial redistricting that have taken place in predominantly Republican states. According to Ballotpedia, six states have voluntarily redrawn their congressional districts in since the 2024 election. Before 2025, only two states had done mid-decade redistricting since 1970.
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This story was originally published September 21, 2026 at 11:11 AM.