Gas Prices Fall for a 12th Straight Day to $4.10 — Still the Highest Ever for November

There is finally movement at the pump — in the right direction, and not nearly enough of it. AAA’s national average for a gallon of regular gasoline fell to $4.10 on Thursday, November 5, the 12th straight daily decline, and 12 cents below a week ago. Diesel slipped to $6.26.

Context is the story. A year ago the national average was about $3.08. A month ago it was $4.37. And even after twelve days of declines, Thursday’s price is the highest ever recorded for early November — before 2026, the November average had never topped $4. The ladder tells the whole election year in one line: about $2.98 a gallon when the Iran war began in late February, a spike as tanker attacks hit oil markets, and a slow, incomplete retreat ever since.

Thursday also showed why relief is fragile. Oil rebounded the same day gas fell — Brent crude settled up 3.8% at $98.29 a barrel and U.S. crude rose 2.7% to $90.52 — as traders weighed tanker attacks and diplomacy. GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan has suggested pump prices could fall toward $3.65 if Wednesday’s oil losses pass through, but that depends on a strait staying open and a war staying quiet.

It is not a mystery why 59% of voters in one exit poll named gas and energy among their top concerns, or why the party holding Washington just lost Congress. Gas is the price Americans see every single day, printed in two-foot numbers they cannot avoid.

The conservative take: Celebrate twelve days of declines when they become twelve weeks. At $4.10, filling a tank still costs working families roughly a third more than it did a year ago, and diesel at $6.26 is a tax on everything that moves by truck — which is everything. The new Democratic majority campaigned on affordability. The pump is where they will be graded first, and Republicans should grade them on it every week, with AAA’s own numbers.