Senate Majority Leader John Thune campaigned alongside Rep. Ashley Hinson across northwest Iowa on Friday, Oct. 24, making a late push to keep the seat of retiring Sen. Joni Ernst in Republican hands and preserve the GOP's Senate majority.
The Sioux City swing came just over a week before the Nov. 3 midterm election, in a race few expected to be competitive a year ago. Hinson is locked in a tight contest against Democratic state legislator Josh Turek, according to U.S. News & World Report, which documented the joint appearances between campaign stops.
Thune: Hinson 'flat has to win'
Friday's schedule included 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.
Thune left no doubt about what is on the line.
“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 aboard her campaign bus.
He acknowledged the political environment is tough for Republicans this cycle, but argued the choice before voters is clear.
“We have to be able to deliver a message that you have a clear choice in front of you about two very different paths,” Thune said.
Hinson, for her part, reminded voters that the seat carries a six-year term.
“There is a lot at stake in this election, and Iowans are pretty savvy people to understand that this is a six-year term,” Hinson said.
What Iowa voters are actually asking about
Notably, voters at the Iowa events were not asking about the national fight over election legislation. They wanted to talk about childcare, the economy, and how rising farm input costs are squeezing their operations.
That focus on pocketbook issues tracks with reporting from Local 10, which covered Thune's broader tour of red states as he scrambles to protect the Republican majority.
Thune has also campaigned for Republican Senate candidates in Nebraska, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Kentucky, Florida and Minnesota, and he is headed to Ohio to help Sen. Jon Husted, who faces a tough challenge from former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
At the business roundtable, Thune kept his message simple.
“We've got to turn out the vote,” he said.
Thune defends the filibuster, takes heat from the base
Thune's heavy campaign travel was not a given earlier this year. Parts of the party's base, and President Donald Trump himself, criticized the South Dakota Republican after the Senate failed to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to vote and mandate voter ID nationwide.
Thune supports the bill, but it cannot clear the 60-vote threshold in the 100-member Senate while the filibuster stands, and no Democrats have signed on.
Trump has pressed Thune to scrap the filibuster. Thune has refused, arguing Republicans will need the same rule to block Democratic legislation whenever the party returns to the minority.
Tensions between the two men peaked this summer when Trump, asked in the Oval Office whether Thune was the right man for the job, replied: “We're going to find out, and I'll let you know.”
The relationship has since warmed. Trump has said repeatedly that he likes Thune personally, and Thune's office released photos earlier this month of the majority leader and his grandchildren taking a White House tour led by a smiling president.
Thune joked about the dynamics at one Iowa stop.
“I tell all of our candidates, I'll come out for you or against you, whichever helps you the most,” he said.
Hinson walks her own line with Trump
Hinson appeared with Trump at a rally in Sioux City the night before Thune's visit, but she has also broken with the president on specific decisions, including increased beef imports and a deal to import diesel fuel from Russia.
When the president is right, “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 Hinson and Thune have had to answer for Trump's war in Iran, having joined most Republicans in voting down repeated Democratic attempts to end it. Rising fuel prices since the war began, combined with the trade war, have hit Iowa farmers especially hard.
Hinson has said on the trail that she wants the war to reach a “successful and immediate end.” Thune told the chamber of commerce crowd the conflict is “not going to be a long-term thing.”
“There's going to be a solution there, an answer there soon,” he said, adding that fuel prices will eventually come down.
Democrats see an opening in a red state
Turek, like Democratic candidates in other traditionally Republican states, is pitching himself as a bipartisan voice in Washington, and outside one Hinson event, two Turek supporters staged a small protest.
Hinson is “doing Trump's bidding,” said Valerie Conaway Cote, a Sioux City Democrat who told reporters she once admired Thune as a reasonable dealmaker but now believes he “seems to bend the knee” to the president.
What happens after Nov. 3
A week after the election, Senate Republicans will gather in Washington to decide by secret ballot whether to keep Thune as their leader. No challenger has stepped forward.
“The guy's an extraordinarily nice human being,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, said earlier this month. “Do I think he's got broad support? Yes.”
Moreno said he does not expect Thune to take the blame for midterm losses if they happen.
“If there's any Republican losses, it's going to be about gas prices,” Moreno said.
If Republicans hold the Senate, Thune said the 2027 agenda would include guardrails on artificial intelligence, renewed work on housing and tax reform, permitting legislation, and a broad bill to regulate college sports.
If Democrats take the chamber, Thune predicted “two years of paralysis” with Trump in the White House.
“And I don't think that's good for anybody,” he said.
Frequently asked questions
Who is running for Joni Ernst's Senate seat in Iowa?
Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson and Democratic state legislator Josh Turek are competing in the Nov. 3 election to replace retiring Republican Sen. Joni Ernst.
Why is John Thune campaigning in Iowa?
Thune, the Senate majority leader, is campaigning for Republican candidates nationwide to preserve the GOP's Senate majority, including for Hinson in what has become a close Iowa race.
Will Thune remain Senate Republican leader after the election?
Senate Republicans will vote by secret ballot a week after Nov. 3, and no challenger has emerged, though the outcome of the midterms could shape the decision.