A Kansas crowd chanted "shame on you" at a Republican senator last week at the state fair.
Now Senator John Kennedy is flying to Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa to do damage control.
What Senator John Kennedy said about those states when he landed is something Republicans are not ready to face.
Kennedy Admits the Layups Stopped Going In
"Those ought to be fat guy layups for us," Kennedy said last week.
He wasn't talking about Georgia or Michigan or any of the usual swing-state battlegrounds.
https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/2102036874776695129?s=20
He was talking about Kansas – where Trump won by 16 points in 2024.
He was talking about Nebraska – where Trump won by 20 points.
He was talking about Iowa – where Trump won by 13 points.
And in Kansas right now, Republican Senator Roger Marshall is trailing his Democratic opponent by two points in one recent poll.
Democrats haven't won a Senate seat in Kansas since 1932.
That "shame on you" crowd at the Kansas State Fair wasn't a fluke.
JD Vance had to fly to Kansas last week to try to stop the bleeding.
When the Vice President of the United States has to campaign in a state that voted Republican by 16 points, something has gone badly wrong.
The Gas Pump Is Killing Republicans at the Ballot Box
Kennedy knows exactly what's driving this, and he said it plainly.
"The public is upset about a lot of things," he said. "They’re upset about the cost of living. They would like answers to what’s going on in Iran. They’re upset about artificial intelligence.”
Diesel just hit $6.40 a gallon – an all-time record, up 73% from last year.
Gas is sitting at $4.50 nationally.
The Iran war choked off the Strait of Hormuz, oil surged past $100 a barrel, and every American filling up a tank – or buying groceries that came on a diesel truck – is feeling it directly.
https://twitter.com/washington_EY/status/2101358155150270791?s=20
Roughly two-thirds of registered voters say fuel costs will influence how they vote in November.
That's not a polling footnote.
That's a tsunami warning.
A Fox News poll now shows voters trust Democrats over Republicans on inflation by 15 points.
Republicans own the inflation issue right now, and not in the way they want.
Biden drove prices up 21.4% over four years – a record of economic destruction that should disqualify Democrats from talking about inflation for a generation.
Trump brought that number down to 5.5% – a legitimate win.
But voters aren't comparing Trump to Biden at the gas pump.
They're comparing the price to what they paid last year.
And last year it was cheaper.
Kennedy is "very disappointed" about what the Senate has accomplished since passing the Big Beautiful Bill – his words.
That's a senator telling his own party: we won and then we coasted, and now we're paying for it.
History makes this worse.
The president's party loses an average of four Senate seats every midterm – and that number climbs sharply when voters are angry about the economy.
https://twitter.com/simonateba/status/2101794087380603149?s=20
Ronald Reagan was popular in the fall of 1986 and actively campaigning for his incumbents.
He still lost eight Senate seats.
Republicans in 2026 don't have sky-high approval ratings.
They have $6.40 diesel and a Kansas Senate seat that should have been unlosable – and isn't.
When John Kennedy tells you the layups aren't going in, the gas pump doesn't care about the calendar.
Sources:
- Brecca Stoll, "GOP Senator Issues Stark Warning Ahead Of Midterms," Daily Wire, September 21, 2026.
- "Emerson College Poll: Marshall Trails Hamilton by Two Points," The Hill, September 2026.
- "Fox News Poll: Squeezed Costs, Frustrated Voters Turn to Democrats," Fox News, September 2026.
- Brecca Stoll, "Diesel Prices Hit All-Time High," Daily Wire, September 2026.
- "Fuel Costs Will Influence Voter Decisions," The Center Square, June 2026.
- Anna Kaminski, "Clamorous Crowd Dominates First Kansas Senate Debate Between Marshall, Hamilton," Kansas Reflector, September 12, 2026.