(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . MAGA realizes disaster is coming, but its solution is hilarious [1] [] Date: 2026-09-24 Steve Deace is freaking out about Republicans’ prospects in Iowa this November. If you aren’t familiar with Deace—and I suspect most of you are not—he is a longtime far-right media personality who hosts “The Steve Deace Show” on Glenn Beck’s BlazeTV. An influential voice in Iowa’s evangelical conservative movement, he holds politics that combine staunch social conservatism and evangelical Christianity with the anti-establishment populism that has defined the MAGA-era right. In a long post on X on Wednesday, Deace lamented the sorry state of his party in this election cycle. “Yesterday, Iowa House Republicans were informed by their own pollsters that if you are in a +15 district you’re within the margin for error, if you’re in a +10 district you’re underwater, and that this might end being an even worse midterm environment than 2006,” he wrote. I couldn’t find a reliable source showing exactly how many state House districts fall within those margins. But Republicans hold a commanding 67 of 100 seats in the chamber, so a political environment in which R+15 districts are within the margin of error would likely put a meaningful chunk of that majority at risk. And while Deace was specifically talking about state-legislative districts, consider Iowa’s congressional map. Republicans hold all four U.S. House seats, and President Donald Trump’s 2024 margin of victory in three of them was 10 percentage points or less. Trump won Iowa that year by 13 points, and as we know, the U.S. Senate race in Iowa is incredibly competitive. “Whatever we’re doing or not doing in Iran/Hormuz has become a 2020 Covid lockdown level of political albatross,” continued Deace. “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 between what a Democrat Congress will do and the courts have already been doing. Not to mention what it will cost individual states like my own, which we have worked so hard to make so red these last 20 years (with Trump’s help).” Don’t threaten us with a good time, Steve. Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, shown in 2025, is locked in a competitive race this year. AP In any case, Deace has a solution to their electoral predicament, arguing that Republicans can still win. “We need the president out on the stump asap,” he wrote, presumably with a straight face. “We need better and way more aggressive messaging. Stop running fake and gay ads about how often so-and-so shows up for votes, and instead mercilessly hammer Democrats on the wickedness they’re voting for. Articulate specifically what the mission/victory is in Iran/Hormuz, because out here in the cheap seats it feels like another Middle East War quagmire regular folks are paying for on both ends all over again.” Does he really want a senile Trump out on the stump, blabbering about snipers on his arch or the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool or getting his name slapped on the Ford’s Theatre, for Chrissake, because the yawning black hole of his ego can never be filled? They tried that at their stupid midterm convention, and it failed spectacularly, with the polls cratering afterward. And what is it about conservatives and thinking the answer is always better “messaging”? People can’t fill up their tanks. They can’t afford to fill up their grocery carts. Republicans can rant ad infinitum about transgender swimmers, but it won’t change the economic reality facing a vast swath of America. Latinos voted in distressingly large numbers for Trump in 2024 despite knowing the “wickedness” in his heart because they believed his promises to lower prices. When people can’t afford to feed their families, they’re willing to vote for the devil. Now right-leaning voters may be confronting their own version of that calculation. However much they may dislike Democrats, however “wicked” they may consider them in normal times, it’s clear that the devil they know is truly a devil, and fuck that guy. And finally, Deace expects Trump to articulate a theory of victory in Iran? He never articulated one from the beginning. Ultimately, Deace’s suggestion that Trump spend more time campaigning is a sign that the cult is real. Despite Trump’s approval rating threatening to drop into the 20s (and have in at least one poll), and despite all evidence suggesting that Trump is the biggest reason the GOP is in this predicament, Deace can’t get past his Trump worship. He loves Trump, so he still thinks even higher visibility for the man will save them. It won’t. But please, by all means, let’s hope Trump is out there on the campaign trail every second of every day from now on through Election Day. For more details on Iowa, check out this excellent community story by snowbored. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/24/800102836/elections/maga-iowa-steve-deace-trump-stump/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/