President Donald Trump's last-minute rollout of massive infrastructure projects in battleground states has Republicans asking the same question: why didn't this come sooner?
According to Politico, the projects slated for Alaska and Iowa — states central to the GOP's midterm fight — are "too little, too late" to meaningfully help Republican lawmakers trying to hold their seats. The announcements include a $50 billion natural gas pipeline in Alaska, a $15 billion steel plant in Iowa, and a $3.2 billion bridge project in Alabama. All are earning bipartisan praise and could become "genuine economic wins" for their states — if they're ever completed. But the earliest any of them would be operational is 2030.
GOP strategists welcome any good news in a cycle where Republicans are desperate for something to campaign on, but they're skeptical the projects will move the needle while gas prices sit above $4.40 a gallon and mortgage rates hover near 7.5 percent.
"Whether it's a new Alaska pipeline or this steel mill here in Iowa, these are fantastic projects but politically there is a tight timeline to leverage them," Iowa GOP strategist Luke Martz complained to Politico.
The push comes as Trump barnstorms a map where, as Politico put it, "the fires are everywhere," with Democrats newly competitive in Alaska, Iowa and Kansas — all states Trump carried by double digits in 2024. With just four weeks until the election and early voting already underway, there's little time left to shift souring voter sentiment.
"These are announcements," one former Trump official stated before lamenting, "They make great headlines but it doesn't drop the inflation rate or fuel prices."
The Politico report added, "Some Republicans fear that positive news cycles in their states will be quickly subsumed by other news — or potentially tarnished by the Trump brand. The president’s approval rating is at near-record lows, with his daily average rating hovering around 37% as of Thursday."
