Iowa Politics with Jeff Stein -- Tue. Oct. 06, 2026

28 distraction, 28 days.

I'm Jeff Stein with today's Iowa Politics Report.

The number 28 is on my mind today.

There are 28 days until Election Day, and the 28 presidential campaign is needlessly getting in the way of it.

Recall that we previously discussed how the GOP midterm convention in Texas last month skillfully avoided people gossiping about the 2028 race by making sure Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both did not appear.

Rubio was out of the country, so no one could detract from the message of winning in 2026 this year by comparing how Vance and Rubio each did at the

podium.

We did note at the time that 2016 Iowa Caucus winner Ted Cruz was visible during the convention, but it was his home state after all.

Cruz has been active helping 2026 candidates, including two appearances at Iowa events in successive weeks this fall.

That has led to obvious speculation about his future.

So far so good, but now both fans and crews have taken the bait from media and it's getting in the way of GOP messaging this election cycle.

And that's quite important because if things don't go a certain way in just four weeks,

The 2028 landscape looks far different than it does now.

Vance was asked in an interview about Cruz's activity, and rather than deflecting the question and putting the focus back on today, the vice president said it was really obvious Cruz was running in 2028.

When asked about that comment, rather than deflecting the question and putting the focus back on today, Cruz said that it sounded like the vice president was

Insecure.

Unforced errors, but the type that could start dividing folks at a time when the full effort should be focused on get out the vote efforts for this year.

Sure, folks can walk and chew gum at the same time, but why make them?

And that's the Iowa Politics Report for Tuesday, October 6th on Twitter, Instagram, Gitter, Threads and Truth Social at Iowa Politics.

I'm Jeff Stein on News Talk 1540.

KXEL