WASHINGTON — In a sign that Pennsylvania Democrats will lean into an affordability message that proved successful for their party during elections this month, U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio is launching a campaign-style Thanksgiving video that blames President Donald Trump for higher grocery prices and looks ahead to next year's midterm elections.

The Pittsburgh-area congressman — who will be seeking a third, two-year term in a relatively competitive district in 2026 — is shown in the video unloading groceries from a car and setting them up for display.

He gestures to a Butterball turkey and says the Thanksgiving staple is 25% more expensive than last year. He holds up a spiral ham, saying it costs 49% more. Cranberry sauce and yams, squash and creamed corn "hasn't gotten easier either," he says.

The actual inflation for those and other items on tables across the country this week are different according to different estimates, with some even showing a decrease this year.

But Deluzio — pointing to a Trump campaign promise to lower prices — puts the blame on the president and his allies, saying they have instead only engaged in "a dumb trade war" and "a tax giveaway to the biggest, most powerful corporations and the richest people that have ever existed."

"We need to take back the House next year, electing leaders who actually have a plan to bring down costs," Deluzio says. "That is something I'll be grateful for."

The video produced by Deluzio's campaign is launching three weeks after Democrats who won competitive elections — in places such as New York, New Jersey and Virginia — said their focus on cost-of-living issues during Trump's second presidency were key to their success. It also comes as Deluzio has looked to take on a larger national role in pushing back against Trump and steering his party toward a brand of economic populism.

Earlier this year, he and a cohort of others launched a group known as the New Economic Patriots that called on Democrats to "wake the hell up" and end "the era of a spineless Democratic Party." He launched a digital ad in September that railed against the major tax law Trump passed in the summer as a benefit to "corrupt, rich [expletives]."

The latest video echoes some of those early comments on corporations and price gouging. It highlights increased costs for various food items — including 25% for turkey, which matches recent analysis like one from Purdue University but differs from others, like the American Farm Bureau Foundation's finding that the price in stores has dropped slightly.

Deluzio's campaign spokeswoman said the 77-second video would run on the congressman's campaign social media accounts but that it was not an ad that the campaign would pay to promote.

His re-election fundraising effort has launched several sponsored videos on platforms like Facebook in recent months. One of those was a video Deluzio made last week in response to violent rhetoric Trump aimed at him and a small group of other Democrats in what became a major national news story.

The threats from Trump — calling the Democrats "seditious" whose behavior was "punishable by DEATH!" — were spurred by another video in which the Democrats told active-duty military and intelligence officials to "refuse illegal orders." All of the Democrats have since reported receiving increased death threats and an inquiry from the FBI.

"I'm not going to be intimidated," Deluzio said in the video responding to Trump's threats. According to the Meta ad library that discloses advertisements on Facebook, Deluzio's campaign spent $5,000 to $6,000 to promote the video with a link to donate to the campaign. It had garnered 70,000 to 80,000 impressions since Thursday.

Deluzio, whose district covers Beaver and parts of Allegheny counties, won his second term in 2024 by nearly 8 percentage points.

Other districts across the state are more competitive. But after they flipped from Democratic to Republican representation last year, Deluzio has described himself as "the only Democrat representing a battleground district in Pennsylvania" because he's had the narrowest margins of victory compared to other incumbent Democrats.

The Cook Political Report, a widely cited resource analyzing competitive districts across the country, categorizes Deluzio's 17th Congressional District as "likely Democrat" — competitive, but not as competitive as a "toss up" or a district that "leans" one way.

With more Republican-held seats considered "toss up," Democrats are hopeful they can overcome a narrow gap to retake the majority in the U.S. House, which currently has 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats.

After the recent Nov. 4 local elections in Pennsylvania, Deluzio said he was encouraged by Democratic wins "up and down the ballot," including council and school board races in his district.

"I'm fired up. I got fire in my belly," he said in a video after the election. "I am ready to win next year."

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