Leadership Quote by Judd Gregg

Judd Gregg isn’t really talking about gasoline; he’s auditioning for relatability in a state where retail politics runs on diner conversations and icy parking lots. The line is engineered to sound like it was overheard at the pump: plain, irritated, immediate. By opening with “like everybody else in New Hampshire,” Gregg claims a shared grievance and preemptively wraps himself in the moral authority of the average driver. It’s a classic populist move from a professional insider: borrow the authenticity of frustration to justify suspicion.

The $50 figure does important stagecraft. It’s specific enough to feel real, old enough to evoke a time when $50 used to mean “a full tank” rather than “a wince.” The number turns a macroeconomic story into a pocketbook injury, the kind voters can replay in their heads on their next fill-up. Gregg’s “I get upset” keeps the tone emotional but controlled; he’s not ranting, he’s registering a reasonable complaint.

The real payload is “I’m wondering if these prices are legitimate.” That word choice insinuates something darker than supply shocks or geopolitics. “Legitimate” invites the audience to suspect manipulation, gouging, or a rigged market without him having to accuse anyone directly. It’s a rhetorical dog whistle for oversight: maybe we need investigations, maybe we need policy, maybe we need someone like him to ask the questions others won’t. In a campaign context, it’s not an energy argument so much as a trust argument - and the villain is ambiguity itself.