U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to board Air Force One for travel to Tennessee from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, September 26, 2026. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Iowa has long been viewed as an important indicator of which way the political winds are blowing, and according to new reporting by the Washington Post, President Donald Trump is facing a storm as Republicans in the state rush to distance themselves from his policies with the midterms fast approaching. “It feels like it could be a wipeout,” one GOP strategist told the Post, and conservative candidates are in a panic to save themselves from drowning in Trump’s historic unpopularity.
“The vibe, generally speaking, is not great,” the strategist revealed, asserting that the electoral field looked a lot like 2006, when Democrats’ massive midterm gains were driven by anger about the Iraq War and deteriorating economy. Now in Iowa, GOP officials hope that Trump will campaign in the state’s reddest districts in an attempt to bolster turnout and, as the Post puts it, “explain his thinking on the war.” The fact that the party feels it needs the president to campaign in what should be safely Republican areas does not bode well for its internal polling. As the Post explains, “Republicans in this once-purple state have made big gains in the Trump era, in large part because of Iowa’s high proportions of white, working class and rural voters who have been core to the MAGA movement. Republicans have held unified control of state government and the two U.S. Senate seats for nearly 10 years. They also hold the governor’s mansion and all four House seats.”
But in a major sign that the GOP sees warning lights flashing, Republican candidates are moving away from Trump’s messaging, sometimes pushing back hard. As the Post writes, “In a sign of how powerfully the party fears the Iran war blowback in the state, two House Republicans from Iowa voted with Democrats earlier this month on a resolution that directs Trump to withdraw U.S. troops from the Iran conflict. [Republican Rep. Ashley] Hinson also recently announced she wants the war to end, although she did not back the resolution.” Trump already had a dwindling approval rating of 44 percent in Iowa before the recent spike in diesel prices, and as it is a key farm state, the cost hike has likely made the polling numbers much worse for the president. As a result, notes the Post, “Two of the state’s four congressional seats are now rated as toss-ups, a third as lean Republican, and the fourth as solid Republican by the political rating agency Cook Political Report. The governor’s race leans Democratic, according to Cook, while the Senate race is a toss-up.”
”I’m a big Trump supporter, I always have been. But you know, the cost of living and gas and fuel price, it’s not helping him at all,” said Republican donor Ivan Stoltzfus. “He’s probably at the place where he wishes he’d never seen Iran.”
“It sucks,” declared 82-year-old Republican Richard Kelly, who told the Post he planned on voting for the Democratic candidate for Iowa governor.