SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he wouldn't be offended if some Republicans didn't want to campaign with him. He knows that he's taken intense criticism from the party's base — and from President Donald Trump — for his chamber's inability to pass voter legislation this year.
But Republican candidates in marquee Senate races have welcomed Thune's help as he’s traveled around the country in the weeks before the midterm elections, scrambling to save his majority.
That includes Rep. Ashley Hinson in this deep red corner of Iowa, a state that Republicans couldn’t have envisioned as a tossup race a year ago. Hinson is locked in a tight contest against Democrat Josh Turek to replace retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.
Hinson said she was grateful for Thune’s visit as the two spent Friday campaigning together in the northwest part of the state — a luncheon at the Sioux City chamber of commerce, a tour of the Iowa Air National Guard’s refueling wing, a roundtable with local business owners and meet-and-greets at a packed high school football game that night.
“I’m absolutely convinced that she flat has to win, and if she doesn’t, we’re not going to be in the majority,” Thune said in a joint interview with Hinson between stops, during a brief moment of rest in the back of her campaign bus. He acknowledged the environment for Republicans is tough, but “we have to be able to deliver a message that you have a clear choice in front of you about two very different paths.”
The stakes for Thune and his party are enormous in Iowa and in several other traditionally Republican states as voters voice frustration with Trump, his war in Iran and high gasoline and grocery prices. Despite a map favoring Republicans, Democrats are hopeful that they can win the Senate. And like several other Democrats running in red states, Turek, a state legislator, is telling Iowa voters that he would be a bipartisan voice in Washington.
Hinson acknowledges that voters have concerns. But “there is a lot at stake in this election,” she says, “and Iowans are pretty savvy people to understand that this is a six-year term.”
Thune told voters who showed up to the business roundtable to “do everything you can to help her get there.”
“We’ve got to turn out the vote," he said.
Thune makes closing argument to save his majority
Beyond Iowa, Thune has campaigned with Republican Senate candidates in Nebraska, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, Florida and Minnesota. He's headed to Ohio in the coming days to help Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who is facing a tough challenge from Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown.
It wasn’t always a given that Thune, elected by his conference to replace Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell two years ago, would have so much face time with voters and candidates.
Some on the right blame Thune for the failed effort to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship for voters and mandate voter ID across the country. Thune supports the bill, but it has no chance in the 100-member Senate with the filibuster intact, because Republicans need Democratic support for any piece of legislation to win the necessary 60 votes.
Trump has pressed Thune to change the rules of the Senate and ditch the filibuster, but Thune has staunchly refused, citing the need to stop Democratic legislation if and when Republicans lose power again.
Tensions between the two men peaked this summer, when Trump appeared to question Thune’s leadership. Asked in the Oval Office if the South Dakota Republican was the man for the job, Trump replied that “we’re going to find out, and I’ll let you know.”
Still, Trump has said more than once that he likes Thune personally, and Thune’s office released photos earlier this month of the majority leader and his grandchildren at the White House, on a personal tour led by a smiling Trump.
Thune is also well-liked among his colleagues and enjoys strong support from within his GOP conference — and from possible future members like Hinson.
Thune joked at one of the Iowa events that “I tell all of our candidates, I’ll come out for you or against you, whichever helps you the most.”
Thune navigates Trump, just like GOP candidates
Voters in Iowa weren't asking Thune and Hinson about the SAVE America Act. Instead they were mostly focused on issues like childcare and how the economy and farm input costs are affecting their businesses.
Like Thune, Hinson has been navigating Trump throughout her campaign — appearing with him at a rally in Sioux City the night before but also speaking out against decisions she disagrees with, like increasing beef imports and a deal with Russia to import diesel fuel.
When the president is right about something, “I’m going to be with him, and if he’s wrong about something, I’m going to be in his ear telling him,” Hinson said.
Both are also having to answer for Trump’s war in Iran, as they have joined most Republicans in voting against repeated Democratic attempts to stop it. Rising gas prices since the war’s inception along with Trump's trade war have hit farmers in the state particularly hard.
Despite those votes, Hinson has said on the campaign trail that she wants to see the war come to a “successful and immediate end.”
Thune told attendees at the chamber of commerce lunch that the war is “not going to be a long-term thing.”
“There’s going to be a solution there, an answer there soon,” he said, and fuel prices will eventually come down.
It’s unclear whether enough voters will trust them. Outside one of Hinson’s events, two Turek supporters staged a small protest.
Hinson is “doing Trump’s bidding,” said Valerie Conaway Cote, a Democrat from Sioux City.
Cote said she used to like Thune and thought he was “a respectable man that saw both sides and made reasonable decisions."
“But,” she said, "he is firmly in Trump’s corner, and he seems to bend the knee.”
GOP conference backs Thune as he plans robust agenda
In the nation's capital, Senate Republicans will gather a week after the Nov. 3 election to decide whether to reelect Thune as leader. It’s a secret ballot, and no one has stepped up to challenge him.
“The guy’s an extraordinarily nice human being,” said Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio earlier this month. “Do I think he’s got broad support? Yes.”
Moreno said he doesn’t think Thune will be blamed if they suffer losses in the midterms.
“At the end of the day, if there’s any Republican losses, it’s going to be about gas prices,” Moreno said.
If Republicans do hold on to the Senate, Thune said part of next year’s agenda would be trying to put guardrails around artificial intelligence along with renewed attempts at housing and tax reform. He said they would also try again on permitting legislation and a broad bill to regulate college sports, if those don’t get done this year.
If Democrats win, “you’re going to have two years of paralysis,” Thune said, with Trump in the White House. “And I don’t think that’s good for anybody.”
