By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-29 00:06:38 | Updated at 2026-09-29 01:13:03
1 hour ago
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on Sept. 28 that the Iran war has “trumped everything else” in the upcoming midterm election, as related affordability issues have become a key voter concern.
During a Monday interview on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom,” Thune was asked whether the midterm races would have been different if the Senate had passed the President Donald Trump-backed SAVE America Act election security bill.
In response, Thune said the races are more focused on “affordability issues.”
“It’s the price of diesel in places like Iowa and Kansas and Nebraska and the Midwest, Minnesota,” Thune said. “And so, I think that’s the issue. And what’s happening, Iran [has] sort of trumped everything else that’s going on.”
Thune’s comments underscoring the impact of the conflict with Iran and broader affordability concerns come as recent polls have shown that a majority of voters disapprove of the Trump administration’s decision to launch a military campaign against Iran.
A recent Economist-YouGov poll found that 57 percent of Americans surveyed said the war with Iran was the wrong decision in hindsight compared with only 23 percent of respondents who said it was the right decision.
The poll also found that 61 percent of Americans polled believe the United States should make a deal with Iran to end the war as quickly as possible.
In a separate Wall Street Journal poll, 60 percent of respondents said Trump’s policies have made the economy worse.
The price of regular gasoline was $4.47 per gallon as of Sept. 28, according to the American Automobile Association.
Meanwhile, diesel was $6.45 per gallon on Monday after reaching a historic high of $6.52 last week.
Brent crude oil futures increased to $106 per barrel on Monday, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate increased to $93 per barrel.
Monday’s increase in oil prices came after Trump rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart nuclear talks on Saturday.
Tehran’s proposal called for the United States to end its naval blockade of Iranian ports and lift sanctions targeting the regime.
Asked on Sunday whether the U.S. military could launch additional military strikes against Iran before the election in November, Trump said, “I don’t want to say that. I mean, it’s possible, but I just don’t want to say that.”
“I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to win this war very soon, and as soon as we win it, the oil will go down, way down to what it was before the war,” he added.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) suggested on Sunday that Trump was mired in the Iran war and wanted to get back to the position the United States was in before the conflict started seven months ago.
“The president got into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline, without an exit strategy. He’s stuck,” Kelly said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week.”
Last week, the Senate narrowly voted against a war powers resolution that would have symbolically directed Trump to end the U.S. military conflict with Iran.
In a speech from the Senate floor before the vote, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said the conflict with Iran was costing American lives and making it “harder for them to get by at home.”
Following the vote, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Epoch Times that while politicians have warned about the possibility of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon for decades, only Trump has “possessed the courage to take this national security threat head-on.”
