By Renee Hickman and Bo Erickson
CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wisconsin, June 5 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday vowed to end the Iran war quickly and remove a source of high prices as he campaigned in rural central Wisconsin in a bid to help Republicans keep control of Congress in midterm elections.
The stop in Chippewa Falls highlighted Republicans’ strategy to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives, as the party faces political headwinds with voters frustrated by higher costs of living and gasoline prices that have spiked due to Trump’s war on Iran.
The president said progress in negotiations with Iran could come soon, although a deal to end the conflict has been elusive. He urged Wisconsin voters to get energized for the elections.
“We’re going to come out of Iran very quickly and it’s going to be strong one way or the other,” Trump said at a roundtable event in Chippewa Falls. “Your fertilizer prices are going to go way down, just like they were four months ago.”
Attendees packed the inside of a steamy farm building as rain poured on the line of people outside still hoping to get in.
While some attendees were die-hard Trump fans, others approached Trump’s recent policies on Iran with more skepticism.
Tom Paff, a data analyst who traveled from Boyd, Wisconsin, described himself as “definitely a Trump supporter” but he said “I’m not happy about the gas prices, obviously.
“I don’t think we belong in the Middle East at all,” he said.
The district’s incumbent, Representative Derrick Van Orden, is closely aligned with the president and touts the Trump administration’s focus on rural America as a benefit. His narrow reelection win in 2024 has made him a top target for national Democrats who hope to flip the slim 217-212 Republican House majority.
Van Orden, standing on a stage flanked by farm equipment at Custer Farms, told the rally crowd that Trump cares about farmers in America and if anyone says he does not, “You can look at them straight in the eye and tell them that’s a pile of manure.”
Van Orden’s Democratic challenger Rebecca Cooke, at her family’s farm in nearby Eau Claire, Wisconsin, told Reuters she thought Republicans brought Trump to her district because they viewed her race as tight. She noted that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr had also been in the district this week.
Trump’s policies are hurting farmers, Cooke said.
“I think when you look at farmers, who Republicans have seen as a core part of their base, they’re getting squeezed by tariffs, they’re getting squeezed from a healthcare perspective and they’re getting squeezed from inputs with the war in Iran,” she said.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump vowed to cut inflation, but prices have risen following Trump’s sweeping tariffs enacted last year. Since the Iran war began, energy prices have spiked.
Wisconsin’s average gas price of $4.04 per gallon this week is $1.08 higher than a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association.
Trump has said the political implications of energy costs do not create more pressure to reach a peace deal with Iran. But many of his Republican allies are anxious to move past Iran and focus on pocketbook issues and prevent a Democratic takeover of Congress that would likely stymie Trump’s agenda.
Trump’s Wisconsin trip is at least the fourth visit to this district by top administration officials in the last year, following visits by Vice President JD Vance in August and February, and Kennedy’s recent stop.
(Reporting by Renee Hickman, Nandita Bose and Bo Erickson; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by Sergio Non, Cynthia Osterman and David Gregorio)
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