Ranchers in battleground states are venting fury at President Donald Trump over high diesel prices and his decision to allow imports, and the backlash could, according to a report published Thursday by the conservative newspaper the Washington Examiner, "cost Republicans a Senate seat in Kansas."

"He doesn't know what s—— is coming out of his mouth," one particularly blunt farmer told the Examiner when asked about Trump's performance.

As the paper explains, "High diesel prices, expensive feed, pickups that cost almost as much as a house, and escalating land prices are putting the squeeze on the state's cattle industry." Kansas produces almost a quarter of the nation's beef, and the issue has moved to the center of a tight Senate race, heaping pressure on the Republican candidate, Sen. Roger Marshall. Compounding the tension was Trump's decision to lift tariffs and allow in hundreds of thousands of tons of ground beef from Central and South America.

"I'm disappointed in Trump and the cattlemen's association for not raising cane," said 82-year-old rancher Chuck Madron. "They're letting cattle in from Uruguay. They're letting beef in from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil. What about us ranchers? Diesel is over $6."

Diesel underpins nearly every step of the cattle business, from running tractors and equipment to trucking livestock to auction, so shifts in its price ripple through the whole supply chain. Stockyard owner Tylen Layton told the Examiner that the high cost of diesel is being felt by everyone and is driving down the prices of cattle at auction. His numbers show that the cost of moving an animal has risen by $1.50 per mile. "It just changed the whole dynamics of everything," he explained. "You know, people can't afford to give as much for the cattle now because they're trying to afford the trucking to get them to their final destinations." That translates to a reduction of $40 to $60 per 100 pounds, or about $300 to $600 less per head.

Per the Examiner, Trump's move to allow in cheap imports has exasperated locals, who see it helping meat processors, or packers, or McDonald's, but not shoppers or ranchers. "The problem is that we haven't done the first thing to make beef cheaper for the Wichita, Kansas, housewife or the New York City housewife," Layton explained. "They're hurting us, making it cheap for the packers, but the packers aren't going to bring their prices down when they sell it to the retailers."

According to the Examiner, ranchers are also concerned about an ICE crackdown on meatpacking plants in the state. "The fear is that processing will grind to a halt if staff — mostly immigrants, some legal, some undocumented — stay home," the paper wrote. "The result is an outpouring of frustration with the Trump administration, which people see as too close to voters on the coasts and too far from beef country."

Democrats, meanwhile, "see an opening in a state that has not let them have a look in since the 1930s," according to the report. Their challenger, Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor, took a 2-point lead over Marshall in a recent Emerson College/Nexstar poll. In a recent debate, Hamilton blasted "trade wars," which he said "actually in the last Trump administration cost beef ranchers in Kansas a billion dollars in trade that went to Brazil and Argentina." He also decried the "diminishing of the workforce and arresting the workforce," asserting that it was "making it harder for people to work in the livestock industry," and added, "This is not okay." Whether subsequent polling confirms the shift is one of the things to watch as the race develops.

For his part, Marshall attempted to defend the tariffs, though he later gave a nod to political reality, toning down his once full-throated endorsement of immigration enforcement to signal a degree of disquiet. "When ICE operates in Kansas, it needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement," Marshall posted. "Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe."

"That leaves Kansas ranchers, like farmers across the country, dealing with crippling diesel prices," the Examiner wrote. Jim Moore, a fourth-generation rancher, said it costs him $2,000 now to fill up his three tractors. A president who made much of his support from the farming community, he said, had forgotten his friends when they needed him. For a party that has long counted on rural loyalty, the frustration echoing through cattle country shows how cost pressures at the farm gate can spill directly into politics — and, in this case, into a contest for a seat in a state where Democrats have not won a Senate race since the 1930s.

This article is based on reporting by the Washington Examiner as published by Alternet.