In today’s edition … The Kansas Senate race is worth watching … We ask you about baseball … but first …
How Republicans’ fortunes at the ballot box are linked to diesel fuel prices
Donald Trump knows that his political fortunes are directly tied to record-high diesel prices.
Just look at the deal the president struck with Russia on Friday — one that has drawn considerable blowback from some in the president’s own party.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a report from my colleagues Michael Birnbaum and Evan Halper, has agreed to supply diesel fuel to the global marketplace after what Trump called a “highly successful discussion” with the Russian leader.
Analysts quickly noted that the agreement — which Trump said would support more than 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to the global market this month, an additional 500,000 tons in November and one million tons in the subsequent months — represented just a small slice of U.S. production, and therefore would have a minimal effect on prices that are at record highs because of the president’s ongoing war with Iran.
The move directly contradicts work that Republicans, including Trump, have tried to do as Russia continues its war with Ukraine. Trump signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act less than a month ago. The bill gave Trump sweeping power to impose new sanctions on Russia and its energy industry. Instead, the Treasury Department on Friday announced the United States had lifted sanctions on Russian diesel.
The blowback from some in Trump’s party was swift.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican running in a notably competitive race in the Philadelphia suburbs, wrote that he would force the Republican-controlled House to block “any and all purchases of Russian oil.”
“It will be called the ‘Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act,’” he wrote on X in response to Trump. “It will be forced to the Floor via discharge and it will pass overwhelmingly.”
Putin “will never be our friend,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican. “So the president is doing everything he can to get diesel prices down. But you know what’s going to bring diesel prices down? An end to the war in Iran.”
And Rep. Michael McCaul, a retiring Texas Republican, said he was “concerned the lifting of sanctions on Russian oil will only fund the Kremlin’s war machine — emboldening more violence and destruction, as we have seen in recent days.”
It’s not entirely surprising that Trump is softer on Russia than his Republican counterparts. That has often been the case — and the president followed up this deal by blaming Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky for the ongoing conflict with Russia and saying he should be replaced.
“Zelensky could have settled this war many times — many, many times. And he chooses not to,” Trump said on Saturday. “I think it’s time for Ukraine to get a new president.”
Trump’s weekend, however, highlights how Republicans’ fortunes at the ballot box are inextricably linked to diesel fuel prices.
A Reuters survey released Friday found almost 8 in 10 Americans blame Trump’s administration for rising costs. That finding builds on weeks of polling that have found voters are not only angry about high fuel prices, but blame Republicans.
Trump has largely dismissed the focus on higher gas prices, telling an audience in Nebraska last week that gas prices are “a little bit high.” But he added, “It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.”
This deal with Russia suggests the president knows it is not that small of a price to pay — and is directly tied to Republican’s political success.
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From across the newsroom
- Trump’s midterm road show reveals GOP troubles — and his own priorities, from Natalie Allison and Isaac Arnsdorf.
- They came to Washington to dismantle government. Now, they’re profiting from it, from Faiz Siddiqui, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Meryl Kornfield.
- These are the voters who will decide the midterm elections, from Teo Armus, Clara Ence Morse and Eric Lau.
- Arizona’s GOP keeps embracing election deniers who lose. It could happen again, from Laura Meckler.
- How Trump aide Natalie Harp’s family broke apart — and polarized, from Terrence McCoy.
- Trump could face a new threat in January: A Democratic Senate, from Theodoric Meyer.
What I’m watching
The Kansas Senate race is getting interesting.
It’s been almost a decade since Kansas, a state Trump won by 16 percentage points in 2024, elected a Democratic senator. But a national environment hostile to Republicans and a string of errors by incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall’s campaign have Democrats hoping that challenger Adam Hamilton could shock the political world by winning in November.
A New York Times poll in late September found Marshall and Hamilton neck and neck, with the Republican at 47 percent and the Democrat at 46 percent. A more recent YouGov survey had Hamilton with a narrow three-percentage-point lead.
That race, no matter which poll you look at, is close. And Republicans are redirecting money they never thought they would have to spend in Kansas to the state to thwart Hamilton’s rise.
Part of this is just the nature of a rough environment for Republicans, as evidenced by the first debate between Marshall and Hamilton where the audience routinely heckled the Republican incumbent.
Another factor is that Marshall has been dogged by a string of damaging stories that have kept the Senate race in the news and led some to question his candidacy. The most significant was when the Times documented how Marshall, a doctor, sued 700 patients over medical debt, leading 81 of them to be arrested.
The Kansas City Star also reported Sunday that Marshall charged people 18 percent interest on their medical debt, “by far the highest of the roughly 150 medical practices whose public records were reviewed by The Star.”
Over the weekend, an opposition researcher working for Hamilton, Tyson Brody, documented on X that when Marshall ran in 2020, he failed to pay a local bakery that baked branded cookies for his campaign. The post went viral, forcing Marshall to address it.
“We have absolutely no idea how this happened, but rest assured as soon as it became known to us, we immediately attempted to contact the business in order to apologize, and we have repaid the bill from 2020, double,” the senator wrote on X.
In your local paper
Bring Me The News (Minnesota): Airfare prices are high, and on a recent earnings call, Delta’s head hinted they may not come down anytime soon — even if fuel prices retreat from their 60 percent jump over the last quarter.
Santa Fe New Mexican: Hatch chilies, a product synonymous with New Mexico, are being affected by weather extremes, threatening exports because of drought and diseased plants.
From you
This shouldn’t surprise anyone, given how unpopular Congress is, but many of you agree with Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, that the Senate should change its procedures.
“I don’t know the issues of Senate voting that could be better served by bringing them up to date or by clarifying them. I trust Senator Merkley to spend his time only on matters that deserve his attention and that there is a Republican who thinks the same way seems to me to validate that this is something that needs to be done,” said Suzanne Burke.
Gregory Smyth said, “There have been many times that Mike Johnson has called out Democrats for not voting FOR Americans by voting down certain Bills. Generally, the Democrats would vote for those Bills if certain aspects of the Bills were removed. Considering the Big Beautiful Bill as an example, the Senate, as well as the House, should propose simple, single-issue Bills. There’s just too much hidden nonsense in Bills that makes it harder and harder for the Legislature to pass anything.”
And Mary Robinson agreed that the “Senate rules are very convoluted.”
“I do believe that that 60 vote should be kept for all lifetime judges. This needs to be bipartisan to avoid ultra partisan judges from being put on the bench. They should also be disqualified if they refuse to answer questions,” Robinson said. “Reconciliation bills and presidential nominees should be changed to 55 or 2 more then the majority hold! This way the minority still have a say and the VP can’t break a tie!”
Send a reply
Are you watching the baseball playoffs? The Nationals failing — again — to make the playoffs has me less interested. But I am ready to reengage during the league championship series. Who do you want to make the World Series? Who do you want to win? And why is it the White Sox? Let me and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
Thanks for reading. You can follow me on X at @merica.
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