Vice President JD Vance framed this year’s midterm elections as a fight over priorities, vowing Republicans would curb government corruption and uplift working‑class Americans — a message tested in Iowa as trade conflicts and war in Iran strain the economy.
His Des Moines stop at the Ex-Guard manufacturing facility on Tuesday, May 5, with Rep. Zach Nunn, a Republican facing a tough reelection bid in south-central Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, comes as the U.S. war in Iran exposes GOP vulnerabilities and unsettles the economy ahead of November.
The visit gives Vance, who’s seen as a possible MAGA heir apparent, the opportunity to road test his message before Iowa voters, whose first-in-the-nation GOP caucuses give the state outsized influence in the presidential nominating process. He’s considered a largely inevitable contender for the White House in 2028.
“This is not a normal political environment,” Vance said. “This is a contest between a party that wants to take all of your money and give it to illegal aliens and a contest between gentlemen like Zach Nunn who fight every single day for you.”
Republicans are looking to focus on pocketbook issues ahead of the midterms, touting their tax cuts under the GOP tax and spending law dubbed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” as boosting America’s economic prospects.
Democrats would fight against Republican policies to revive manufacturing and crack down on waste, fraud and abuse, Vance warned voters — saying the minority party would ultimately further enrich the wealthy at the expense of low-income and working-class Americans.
“If you’re building right here in Iowa, if you’re making something right here in Iowa, if you’re working every single day right here in Iowa, you deserve a tax cut,” Vance said.
Nunn’s matchup with Democratic challenger Sarah Trone Garriott, a state senator from West Des Moines, is poised to be one of the nation’s top battleground contests in the midterms.
The Ankeny Republican said Vance was “leading the charge to win this midterm.”
Should Republicans maintain control of Congress, Nunn told a fired-up crowd, “we get to continue to deliver on the greatest tax cut in the American history.”
Iran war, tariffs complicate economic message
But the U.S. war in Iran — which President Donald Trump’s administration has defended as necessary to snuff out the long-time adversary’s nuclear ambitions — has muddied Republicans’ messaging.
That’s especially true in Iowa, where a downturn in the state’s agricultural economy, worsened by trade disputes and reduced demand for goods, has fueled Iowa’s manufacturing job losses — totaling 3,800 lost in the last year, state data show.
The Iran conflict has driven up costs for fuel and farm fertilizer, adding to the woes plaguing Iowa farmers who already were struggling with high production costs and low prices when Trump placed tariffs on the country’s largest trade partners last year.
Trump’s sweeping tariffs have cut exports of commodities like soybeans and leaving farmers with record-size crops they struggled to sell profitably. And now his administration is sending $12 billion to farmers to help offset the tariffs’ toll. Congress could send more aid their way to offset the impacts of the war.
Acknowledging the sluggish farm economy, Vance said Nunn is fighting for year-round access to E15 ethanol-blended gas, a key priority for Iowa farmers.
And he defended Trump’s trade policies as an effort to expand farmers’ access to markets, warning that foreign nations would face a “big fat tariff” should they steal Iowans’ jobs.
“We also know that a lot of our farmers are struggling with high fertilizer prices,” Vance said. “I’m aware of that. As the president of the United States has said, we got a little blip in the Middle East. We’ve got to take care of some business on the foreign policy side. But you know what we’re doing simultaneously? We’re working with the congressman and we’re finding ways every single day to make sure that you guys and the farmers of this great state get access to the products that they need.”
Democrats in the Hawkeye State dinged Republicans for failing to address skyrocketing prices, cutting health care coverage and waging an unpopular war with Iran.
Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said Democratic voters are motivated “because things are not going well here in the state of Iowa.” She said it is “telling” that Trump and Vance have both visited Iowa in the matter of a few months, a sign that Republicans see their candidates on the ballot as potentially vulnerable come November.
Trump rallied in Clive in January, touting the “dramatic one-year turnaround” he said he has engineered on the economy since making his political comeback.
“They really shouldn’t have to work that hard in a state that voted for Trump so overwhelmingly,” Hart told reporters. “And so the fact that they are here I think is very telling. These candidates are in trouble because of the national politics. But I would say they are in trouble here in Iowa because they simply haven’t been showing up. They haven’t been listening.”
Americans should ‘make this country worthy’ of soldiers’ sacrifice
The war has placed Vance in a uniquely difficult position as a leading figure in efforts to end the conflict early — publicly backing its goals while long opposing “forever wars,” which some fear this could become.
In part because of that stance, leaders of Iran’s regime have identified Vance as a potential conduit within Trump’s circle to push for peace talks.
The district Nunn represents has acutely felt the human toll of the conflict, with several central Iowa soldiers among the earliest killed or injured after the war started Feb. 28.
Nunn, a veteran, has said he wants to see the conflict with Iran “resolved speedily” but defended the Trump administration’s objectives in waging war with the Middle Eastern country to root out its nuclear capabilities and end terrorism.
After Air Force Two landed at an Iowa Air National Guard wing of the Des Moines International Airport before 4 p.m., Vance spoke for several minutes with the families of two slain Iowa soldiers.
Addressing the rallygoers, Nunn told the crowd those families gave “the ultimate sacrifice” and acknowledged Iowa bears a disproportionate share of the loss of American servicemembers in the conflict.
Nunn said Iowans are “hurting at the loss” and also feeling the sting of higher costs at the gas pump, but the sacrifice was worth it to preserve America’s energy independence and national security from nations such as Iran.
“Hearing from those Gold Star families, they knew that it was worth it — and when we go to bed every night, we’re a little safer because of what their kids did for us,” Nunn said.
Perhaps Vance’s most crowd-moving moment came when he spoke of greeting the Gold Star families on the tarmac and reflecting on their loss as he rode to the event venue with his youngest son, Vivek, in the motorcade.
He said Americans ought to “make this country worthy of that sacrifice.”
“Part of how we earn that incredible sacrifice given to all of us is by making this country’s politics and government worthy of the people who put on the uniform and will never see their loved ones again,” Vance said. “Part of what we have to do, my friends, is every single day we have to send people to Washington. I’m not saying you have to agree with every single issue. I’m saying that you got to send people to Washington who wake up every single day and recognize that they fight for you.”
Zach Nunn faces competitive race for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District
Nonpartisan elections analysts with the Cook Political Report consider Nunn’s race a “toss-up,” its most competitive category.
The 21-county district spans the cities of Des Moines, West Des Moines, Winterset and Ottumwa.
“A lot of people are gonna tell you this is a bellwether year — that Iowa’s Third is among the most vulnerable in the country,” Nunn said. “But I know this much is true: We’ve taken on tougher races.”
Vance called Nunn a “good fighter for the people of this district.”
“It’s fundamentally, do you want people in Washington, D.C., who fight for you, who fight for the people of this district or who fight for corruption and fraud?” Vance said. “Because I’m 41 years old, and for the first time in my entire life I think we have seen a major political party in the United States of America completely go off the rail.”
The two took turns taking jabs at Trone Garriott, poking at her Iowa Senate record to cast her as someone who would focus more on culture-war issues, including transgender rights.
In the Iowa Senate, she has voted with her party on issues such as preserving trans civil rights protections against discrimination, but crossed party lines to sign off on income and property tax cuts. She has centered her campaign on cutting high living costs and reversing Medicaid cuts enacted under the GOP’s signature domestic policy package.
“I’m running for Congress because it’s time someone stood up for Iowans,” Trone Garriott said in a statement. “Zach Nunn has voted with party leaders like JD Vance and special interests to close health care clinics in Ottumwa and South Des Moines while raising costs on everything from health care to gas and groceries for Iowa families. As a mom, minister and state senator, I’ve spent my entire life showing up for and helping my community, and I plan to do the same in Congress.”
Marissa Payne covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. Reach her by email at mjpayne@registermedia.com. Follow her on X at @marissajpayne.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: JD Vance campaigns with Zach Nunn in Iowa as Iran war rattles economy
Reporting by Marissa Payne, Des Moines Register / Des Moines Register
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