Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas recently claimed that voters have “more important” things to worry about than money, a stark reversal of his prior position that the upcoming midterms would be decided by the price of gasoline.
“Certainly the cost of gas is an issue, but now people are coming home saying, ‘Oh, what’s more important than money?’” Marshall told The Topeka Capital-Journal in a clip from Oct. 8 released Monday. “There are things more important than money to Kansans.”
Yet back in June, the senator said that the cost of gas is “absolutely the barometer for this election.” A month later, he told “Mundo in the Morning” that “the price of gasoline in October” would decide whether Americans have had enough of high prices under President Donald Trump amid his costly war on Iran.
Marshall, a defender of the unpopular war, initially appeared convinced that high gas prices caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz were temporary. During a Newsmax interview in April, he compared Americans’ pain at the pump to the sacrifices civilians made during World War II and warned his constituents that diesel fuel would reach $15 per gallon if Iran built a nuclear weapon.
“I do think this war will be over sooner than later, and those gas prices will come back down,” he predicted in May during an interview on Fox Business. A month later, the Kansas Republican praised Trump on CNN for his memorandum of understanding with Iran, which infamously crumbled in July.
Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press
The national average gas price has risen by some 43% since the Iran war began, and Kansas has see increases of more than 56% for regular gas and 82.2% for diesel, according to The Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University.
Marshall seemed to acknowledge this to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
“So, certainly, the cost of gas is a problem, is a concern for everybody,” he said. “But what I’m hearing more and more now is the Republicans saying, ‘Oh yes, I remember that national security is what’s really important.’”
Whether Marshall’s constituents agree that bombing Iran is more important than putting food on their table or gas in their tanks remains to be seen. The Cook Political Report shifted its Kansas Senate race prediction last week from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up.”
Should Marshall lose his seat to Democratic nominee and pastor Adam Hamilton, Kansas will have elected its first Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1932.