2026-10-02T09:00:44.678Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/02/politics/iowa-steel-mill-trump-hinson-turek
艾奥瓦州滑铁卢——
共和党人正在艾奥瓦州展开一场救援行动，他们大肆宣传一座耗资150亿美元的新钢铁厂计划，与此同时，唐纳德·特朗普总统与该州共和党领导人正急于削弱受损经济带来的政治影响，防止州长职位、一个参议院席位和三个众议院席位在11月的选举中落入民主党人手中。
爱荷华州州长金·雷诺兹召集由共和党主导的州议会召开特别会议，会议定于周五开始——就在特朗普在椭圆形办公室公布爱荷华州东部拟建钢铁厂计划的几天之后。议员们将会面修订州《重大经济增长吸引计划》，为位于密西西比河附近李县的该工厂获得州级激励措施铺平道路。
特朗普宣布该计划的同一周，共和党超级政治行动委员会“参议院领导基金”宣布将再向爱荷华州投入2000万美元，助力美国众议员阿什利·辛森的参议院竞选。民调显示，辛森与民主党州众议员乔希·图雷克的选情胶着。此举使共和党在爱荷华州的竞选支出超过1亿美元。
“对我而言，始终要做的是走出去争取每一张选票，竞选时要表现得好像自己落后10个百分点一样——不过我认为自己并没有落后，”辛森周四对美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）表示。她承认不断上涨的成本正在产生影响，并补充道：“我们确实需要压低物价。我们需要想办法为工薪家庭提供救济。”
共和党在爱荷华州面临的这场战役——这个州两年前特朗普以13个百分点的优势获胜——是该党在中西部地区整体困境的一个缩影。特朗普与伊朗的冲突推高了汽油和柴油价格，他的贸易战加剧了制造商的预算压力、推高了家庭生活成本，并限制了农民进入外国市场的渠道。
爱荷华州保守派谈话电台主持人史蒂夫·迪尔斯上周敲响了警钟，他在社交媒体上警告共和党人，“这次中期选举的环境可能比2006年还要糟糕”——2006年民主党人赢得6个参议院席位和31个众议院席位，从而掌控了参众两院。迪尔斯将对伊战争称为“政治上的累赘”。
“我们正在拿特朗普政府仅剩的一点政治资本冒险，因为如果民主党控制立法部门，我们所有人投票支持的特朗普国内议程将基本不复存在，”他说道。
迪尔斯敦促共和党人将注意力转向民主党不受欢迎的立场，同时也要阐明在伊朗问题上取得胜利的样子。
“政治环境一直在变化，”约翰逊县共和党主席特蕾莎·邦加特纳说道。“目前，我们必须专注于我们能够掌控的因素——也就是宣传我们的主张。”
钢铁厂宣布计划带来的连锁反应——以及总统承诺在竞选最后一个月到访爱荷华州宣传该项目——为中期选举的最后几周增添了一个未知变量。该项目承诺创造1750个永久性岗位和6000个临时性建筑岗位，但同时也引发了共和党人和民主党人的普遍怀疑。
“这听起来好得不像真的，而且可能确实如此，”爱荷华州一位资深共和党官员匿名告诉CNN，他要求不透露身份以免激怒特朗普政府。
从谈话电台到州内报纸的社论版面，对该项目的赞扬与质疑本周主导了爱荷华州的政治讨论。
该宣布计划被拿来与富士康相提并论。这家台湾电子巨头原本计划在威斯康星州投资100亿美元建厂，雇佣13000名员工，但最终远远未能兑现承诺——特朗普在2017年曾称赞这一项目是美国制造业复兴的一部分。
“我来自威斯康星州，那里就是‘富士康项目’的所在地。祝你们的钢铁厂好运，”来自威斯康星州沃什伯恩的杰森·马隆尼在《得梅因纪事报》的读者来信中写道。“一座钢铁厂真的会建在内陆的爱荷华州吗？爱荷华州的民众，准备好被忽悠吧。”
当被问及该项目是否会成为爱荷华版的富士康时，辛森告诉CNN：“我不这么认为。我相信我们的州长，她已经为这笔交易工作了数月，以确保我们能在这里获得这笔稳定的投资。”
尽管民主党人表示支持该项目可能带来的经济发展，但他们承认听到了众多怀疑的爱荷华州民众的担忧，他们质疑该项目是否只是选举年的策略，还是真的能够落地。
该州民主党审计员、州长竞选候选人罗布·桑德表示，他欢迎创造就业机会，但在了解更多细节之前不会下定论。
“我希望确保这是一个真正的机遇，”桑德在得梅因对记者说道。他将在雷诺兹的继任者竞选中对阵共和党商人、农场主扎克·莱恩，“但归根结底，爱荷华州要从这个项目中获益，而不是被宰割。”
布拉德·穆德里在爱荷华州北部经营一家商业电力公司，他表示希望爱荷华州议员对拟建工厂进行充分调研，但他认为该项目“听起来不错”，可能会对整体经济产生涓滴效应。
“这将需要大量的基础设施建设。如果他们真能创造1600个岗位，那有没有足够的住房容纳这些人？”作为特朗普支持者的穆德里说道，他一直在关注本周有关该宣布计划的新闻。“无论如何这都将是双赢，但人们需要多给一点时间。”
该项目如今与国会控制权的争夺紧密相连，而国会控制权的争夺也直接涉及爱荷华州。这场竞争激烈的参议院选举以及三个众议院席位的争夺，可能会决定共和党能否在华盛顿维持微弱的多数席位。
就在辛森呼吁“立即且成功地结束对伊战争”，成为最新一位试图与特朗普保持距离的共和党人几天后，她又被拉回了阵营。在椭圆形办公室里，辛森站在总统身旁不远的地方，称赞了这项钢铁项目，并对总统说：“感谢您的施政议程。”
然而，辛森周四在爱荷华州东北部竞选时，再次呼吁结束对伊战争“以便立即为爱荷华州的家庭提供救济”，但她并未提及钢铁项目。直到滑铁卢的一名记者问及该项目时，她才简要提及，称该工厂是“我们州的绝佳机遇”。
辛森如今正面临一场微妙的博弈——美国全国各地许多共和党人都在复制这种策略——即既要借助特朗普来动员其支持者，又不能因那些对特朗普第二任期感到厌倦的选民的政治逆流而被拖垮。
图雷克是将于周五就拟建钢铁厂进行投票的爱荷华州议员之一。他表示期待了解更多细节，称“我们比以往任何时候都更需要就业岗位”。但他暗示，自己打算继续将对手与特朗普政府的政策捆绑在一起。
“这里的汽油和柴油价格涨幅几乎是全国最高的。我们都在为此付出代价，”图雷克在周三发布的一则新广告中说道。“阿什利·辛森多次投票支持推高物价的政策，而她自己却越来越富有。”
对于爱荷华州民主党人来说，真正值得庆祝的上次选举周期是2018年——也就是凯特琳·克拉克来到爱荷华市大学校园的两年前。
那一年，在特朗普第一任期内举行的中期选举中，民主党人在爱荷华州赢得三个美国众议院席位——将其中两个席位的在任共和党人赶下台——但在州长选举中以微弱劣势输给了雷诺兹。
民主党人自2008年以来就再也没有在爱荷华州赢得过参议院席位，那一年前总统巴拉克·奥巴马出现在大选选票上，也是奥巴马两次在大选中赢得该州的第一次。
爱荷华州上一次同时出现州长和参议院的开放式竞选还要追溯到1968年，这也是该州选举竞争激烈的原因之一。该州两位顶级共和党人——参议员乔尼·恩斯特和连任两届的州长雷诺兹——都不寻求第三任期，这为民主党人创造了罕见的机会。
但民主党人自身也面临挑战，包括比共和党少18万登记选民。
爱荷华州州务卿9月的选民登记数据显示，共和党登记选民为711990人，民主党登记选民为529275人，无党派选民为564581人。无党派选民仍是最重要的未知变量。
早期投票数据为爱荷华州民主党人带来了乐观理由。民主党人提交了67%的选票申请，高于2024年同期的54%。
布莱克霍克县共和党主席阿普里尔·梅尔顿表示，她认为共和党人将“打破历史”，让特朗普在中期选举中表现出色——她补充说，部分原因是她相信总统在不派遣美军地面部队进入伊朗的情况下果断采取行动，这一点值得称赞。
“我们只不过是在汽油上多花了点钱，”她说道。
但梅尔顿表示，她看待中期选举就像最近的爱荷华州立大学与爱荷华大学橄榄球比赛一样：比分胶着，很可能在最后几分钟才分出胜负。
“永远要像处于落后状态一样去战斗，”梅尔顿说道。
With a steel mill and campaign cash, Trump and GOP leaders launch an Iowa rescue mission
2026-10-02T09:00:44.678Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/02/politics/iowa-steel-mill-trump-hinson-turek
Waterloo, Iowa—
Republicans are on a rescue mission in Iowa, touting new plans for a $15 billion steel mill as President Donald Trump and the state’s GOP leaders rush to blunt the political impact of a battered economy and prevent the governor’s office, a Senate seat and three House seats from slipping into Democratic hands in November.
Gov. Kim Reynolds called the Republican-led state legislature into a special session set to begin Friday — days after Trump unveiled the proposed eastern Iowa steel mill in the Oval Office. Lawmakers are set to meet to amend the state’s Major Economic Growth Attraction program to pave the way for state incentives for the plant near the Mississippi River in Lee County.
Trump’s announcement came the same week the Senate Leadership Fund, the GOP’s super PAC, announced it was spending another $20 million in Iowa to boost the Senate campaign of US Rep. Ashley Hinson, who polls show is locked in a tight race against Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek. The move brings GOP spending in Iowa to more than $100 million.
“For me, it’s always been about going out and earning every vote and running like I’m 10 points behind, which I don’t think I am,” Hinson told CNN on Thursday. She conceded that rising costs are taking a toll, adding: “We do need to bring prices down. We need to figure out how we provide relief to working families.”
The battle Republicans face in Iowa — a state Trump won by 13 percentage points just two years ago — is a window into the party’s broader challenges across the Midwest, where Trump’s war with Iran has sent gas and diesel prices soaring and his trade battles have strained manufacturers’ budgets, increased household costs and limited farmers’ access to foreign markets.
Iowa-based conservative talk radio host Steve Deace sounded the alarm last week, taking to social media to warn Republicans that “that this might end being an even worse midterm environment than 2006” — the year Democrats gained six Senate seats and 31 House seats to take majorities in both chambers. Deace called the war in Iran a “political albatross.”
“We are risking what’s left of the Trump presidency on this, because if Democrats take control the legislative branch the Trump domestic agenda we all voted for will largely cease,” he said.
Deace urged Republicans to turn attention toward unpopular Democratic positions, while also articulating what victory in Iran would look like.
“The political environment is constantly shifting,” said Johnson County GOP Chairwoman Teresa Bumgartner. “At this point, we have to be focused on the elements that we can control — which is getting our message out.”
The fallout from the steel plant announcement — and the president’s pledge to visit Iowa in the closing month of the campaign to tout the project — has injected a wild card into the final weeks of the midterm election. A promise of creating 1,750 permanent jobs, along with 6,000 temporary construction jobs, comes with a wave of suspicion from Republicans and Democrats alike.
“It sounds too good to be true, and it just might be,” a top Republican official in Iowa told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid agitating the Trump administration.
From talk radio to editorial pages of the state’s newspapers, praise and skepticism of the project has been dominating the political conversation this week in Iowa.
The announcement was met with comparisons to FoxConn, the Taiwanese electronic giant that fell far short of delivering on plans to spend $10 billion on a Wisconsin plant that would employ 13,000 — a development Trump in 2017 hailed as part of a rebirth of American manufacturing.
“I’m from Wisconsin, home of ‘FoxConn.’ Good luck with your steel mill,” Jason Maloney of Washburn, Wisconsin, wrote in a letter to the editor in the Des Moines Register. “Is a steel mill really coming to landlocked Iowa? People of Iowa, prepare to be grifted.”
Asked whether the project could become an Iowa version of FoxConn, Hinson told CNN: “I don’t think so. I trust our governor who has been working on this deal for months to make sure that we get secure that investment here in Iowa.”
While Democrats said they were supportive of the economic development potential, they acknowledged hearing a wave of concern from skeptical Iowans about whether the project was an election-year gambit or something that would actually come to fruition.
Rob Sand, the state auditor who is the Democratic candidate for governor, said he welcomed the creation of jobs, but was reserving judgment until learning more details.
“I want to make sure this is a real opportunity,” Sand, who is facing GOP businessman and farmer Zach Lahn in the race to replace Reynolds, told reporters in Des Moines, “but also at the end of the day Iowa is getting served by it and not getting fleeced.”
Brad Moudry, who owns a commercial electric business in northern Iowa, said he hoped Iowa lawmakers did their homework on the proposed plant, but said it “sounded good” and could have a trickle-down effect into the broader economy.
“It’s going to take a lot of infrastructure. If they’re going to create 1,600 jobs, is there enough housing for all those people?” said Moudry, a Trump supporter who has been following news of the announcement this week. “It’s going to be a win-win no matter what, but people have to give it a little time.”
The project now is squarely intertwined with the fight for control of Congress, which also runs directly through Iowa. The fiercely-competitive Senate race, along with three House seats, could play a pivotal role in whether Republicans maintain their narrow majorities in Washington.
Just days after Hinson became the latest Republican seeking to distance herself from Trump by calling for an “immediate and successful end to the war in Iran,” she was reeled back in. Standing in the Oval Office a few feet from the president, Hinson praised the steel project, telling the president: “I appreciate your agenda.”
Yet as Hinson campaigned in northeastern Iowa on Thursday, she renewed her call for an end to the Iran war “to provide immediate relief to Iowa families right now,” but she did not mention the steel project. Only when a reporter in Waterloo asked about the project did she briefly mention it, calling the plant “an amazing opportunity for our state.”
Hinson now faces a delicate dance – replicated by many Republicans across the country – of trying to reap the benefits of Trump by motivating his supporters without being carried away by a political undertow of those exhausted by his second term.
Turek is among the Iowa lawmakers who will vote on the proposed steel mill Friday. He said he looked forward to learning more details, saying: “We need jobs more than ever.” But he signaled his intent to keep trying to tie his opponent to policies of the Trump administration.
“Gas and diesel prices have risen more here than almost any other state in the country. We are all paying the price,” Turek said in a new ad released Wednesday. “Ashley Hinson has voted over and over for policies that have jacked up prices, while she gets richer and richer.”
For Iowa Democrats, the last election cycle worth truly celebrating came in 2018 — two years before Caitlin Clark arrived on campus in Iowa City.
That year, the midterm elections of Trump’s first term, Democrats won three US House seats in Iowa — ousting incumbent Republicans in two of them — but narrowly lost the governor’s race to Reynolds.
Democrats haven’t won a Senate race in Iowa since 2008, when former President Barack Obama was on the ballot, the first of two times Obama won the state in a general election.
Not since 1968 has Iowa seen a wide-open race for governor and Senate at the same time, which is one of the factors driving the state’s fiercely competitive election cycle. The decision by two of the state’s top Republicans, Sen. Joni Ernst, and Reynolds, a two-term governor, not to seek third terms has created a rare opening for Democrats.
Yet Democrats still face challenges of their own, including 180,000 fewer registered voters than Republicans.
September voter registration data from the Iowa secretary of state shows that 711,990 voters are registered with the Republican Party, with 529,275 voters registered as Democrats and 564,581 voters not affiliated with either major political party. Independents remain the most important wild card.
Early voting data is offering Iowa Democrats reason for optimism. Democrats have made 67% of ballot requests, up from 54% at this point in 2024.
April Melton, the chairwoman of the Black Hawk County GOP, said she thinks Republicans will “buck history” and deliver Trump a strong midterm performance — in part, she said, because she believes the president deserves credit for decisively taking action against Iran without putting American troops on the ground there.
“All we’re doing is paying a little extra in gas,” she said.
But Melton said she sees the midterms much like recent Iowa-versus-Iowa State college football games: razor-tight and likely to be won in the final minutes.
“Fight like you’re losing, always,” Melton said.
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