A basic monthly bill Americans can't dodge is becoming a midterm flashpoint

As candidates fan out across the country ahead of the midterms, power bills are becoming a tangible symbol of household stress. Unlike other expenses that can be postponed or pared back, electricity costs hit every month with little room for consumers to opt out.

The issue is giving both parties fresh campaign ammunition, with Republicans casting higher bills as evidence of failed energy policies and Democrats pointing to bill assistance and other measures aimed at easing pressure on household budgets.

The fight is unfolding amid sharp regional divides in electricity prices. Federal energy data shows residential power costs vary widely across the country, illustrating how affordability pressures differ by region.

The latest figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration put the national average at 17.24 cents per kilowatt-hour, up 6% from a year earlier.

North Dakota has the lowest average residential electricity rate in the country at 11.02 cents per kilowatt-hour, while Hawaii - an outlier shaped in part by geographic isolation - has the highest, at 41.62 cents per kWh.

Nebraska, Idaho, Oklahoma and Arkansas also rank among the cheapest states, while California, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York join Hawaii among the most expensive.

Several of the cheapest states are deep-red, a pattern Republicans are likely to seize on even though power prices are shaped as much by geography, fuel mix, regulation and usage as by politics.

Even so, the partisan pattern may prove politically useful in a campaign season shaped by anxiety over household expenses.

"Affordability varies by your ZIP code," Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told an audience at BlackRock's infrastructure summit in Washington, D.C., pointing to lower-cost states such as North Dakota as evidence that oil and gas should remain part of the country's energy mix. "That's just a fact," he added.

Secretary Chris Wright added, "High electricity prices are a political choice. They're not required."

"If you look back 15 years, electricity prices in California were only slightly higher than in Florida by about 15%. Since then, the two states have gone in entirely different directions. Today, electricity in Florida costs less than half as much as it does in California, even though Florida produces about 20% more electricity."

"Florida has lower costs and higher reliability, despite being in the middle of Hurricane Alley. It is an outstanding example of what smart decisions, strong operations and thoughtful technology deployment can achieve. Even as much of the world has gone off track over the last 20 years, Florida did not," Wright added.

Democrats counter that federal bill-assistance programs, weatherization funding and grid investments can reduce outages and household energy waste over time, even if they do not bring immediate relief in monthly statements.