Republicans are reaping what they sowed in farm country

BONDURANT, Iowa — You know you’re in Iowa when your car is passed on Interstate 80 by a 12-wheeler truck with the message “Pork Blood Only — Inedible, Not Intended for Human Food.” You know it’s campaign season when the radio is clogged with political ads deriding an opponent as “too liberal” and “creepy.” And you know the Republicans are scared when they feel moved to dispatch House Speaker Mike Johnson to the eastern reaches of the state on a mercy mission to help salvage a Republican congressional seat in a district Donald Trump won by more than 8 percentage points only two years ago.