A Wall Street Journal piece is warning that GOP candidates are "running scared" from President Donald Trump as voter frustration grows in Iowa.
A Thursday opinion piece published by The Journal highlighted the growing frustration among Iowa voters, which it tied to the hits to farmers caused by tariffs and the war in Iran, and how it's causing GOP candidates to create some separation with Trump.
"So many people are just so angry," Terry Arbogast, an Iowa nurse, told The Journal. "Things are hitting us more negatively," Dave Struthers, an Iowa farmer, added.
"It's frustrating when you don't get your stuff going," southern Iowa limestone miner Brian Schaer said.
"Iowans are frustrated, discontented, and downhearted," The Journal piece summed up. "That bodes ill for Republicans in November, and many GOP candidates are running scared—ducking interviews, avoiding issues, seeking a MAGA stance that doesn't involve praising Donald Trump. They're trying to be as generically Republican as they can."
According to the Journal, Iowans say that they're downbeat because they've seen a 53 percent decline in net farm income between 2022 and 2024, and rural voters aren't convinced that the GOP has done enough to help them recover.
"Tariffs, wars, corporations taking advantage, lack of competition," Struthers, the farmer, told The Journal. "Those kinds of things that are on Iowa farmers' minds."
"Right at the onset of the Iran war, fertilizer prices increased sharply due to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz," economist Christopher Pudenz told The Journal. "The longer that conflict drags out, the more likely that it's going to impact fall fertilizer needs and then spring 2027 fertilizer needs."
Trump won Iowa three times, and the entire congressional delegation is Republican, The Journal noted. However, the state has a couple of "competitive" races that have attracted national political figures, including Barack Obama, who filmed a video of him playing basketball with Democratic Senate candidate Josh Turek, the Journal noted.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn told The Journal that "the first polling that came out pre-primary had me down about 10 points," and although he closed the gap somewhat, the Cook Political Report determined his race "leans Democratic." An August Emerson poll has Lahn's Democratic opponent, State Auditor Rob Sand, up 48 percent to Lahn's 43 percent. Sand is the only elected statewide Democrat in Iowa.