JD Vance visited Iowa on Tuesday to do what vice presidents have always done, notes the New York Times: try to boost the prospects of a GOP candidate ahead of the midterms. In this case, it was Rep. Zach Nunn, fighting to keep his seat in a battleground district. But as NBC News notes, the Vance trip has "added political weight" considering he is a top contender for the 2028 GOP nomination. The expectation is that Vance will be making many return trips, and the state's GOP attorney general, Brenda Bird, made a point of telling Vance in Des Moines that he is "absolutely invited to every single part of Iowa."
A Politico analysis by Aaron Pellish argues that while Vance received a warm welcome in the state, his political fate is "unavoidably linked" to President Trump, for better or worse. At the moment, given the war in Iran and high energy prices, that might hurt more than help. Polls currently show broad disapproval of Trump, and that discontent appears to be hurting Vance's approval ratings, too, writes Pellish. "That's the risk of being part of an administration," says state GOP strategist David Kochel. "This is the Kamala Harris problem."
.
Of course, the same link could boost Vance should Trump turn around the economy and bring down prices. Vance acknowledged the pain in the agriculture-heavy state. "We also know that a lot of our farmers are struggling with high fertilizer prices," he said in his speech on Tuesday. "I'm aware of that. As the president of the United States has said, we got a little—a little blip in the Middle East. We've got to take care of some business on the foreign policy side."
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
