With fuel costs rising and November races tightening, several Republicans are distancing themselves from a conflict they once backed.
The U.S. Senate could vote as soon as Thursday, September 24, on a resolution requiring President Donald Trump to end the war with Iran or obtain congressional authorization to continue it. Democrats are pushing for a vote ahead of the November midterm elections to put each senator on record about the conflict.
As noted by Reuters
Polls suggest Republicans risk losing their narrow advantage in Congress in the November 3 elections. Some Republican candidates are distancing themselves from a war that has driven up fuel prices. Just 34% of respondents approve of the strikes on Iran, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week.
Senate leaders have previously said they expect a vote on the war powers resolution before senators leave Washington this or next week. Afterward, lawmakers are expected to return to their states to campaign. Senate aides said a vote could take place as soon as Thursday.
Since U.S. and Israeli forces began bombing Iran on February 28, the Senate has voted 13 times on war powers resolutions. Two of them passed. The House of Representatives has held six such votes, with a majority voting to end the conflict in three cases.
Most of these votes have been largely symbolic. Only one resolution won the support of both chambers of Congress, but the White House did not comply with its requirements.
Republicans shift their position ahead of the elections
On Monday, two Republican Senate candidates called for the war to end as soon as possible. Mike Rogers of Michigan and Ashley Hinson of Iowa had previously supported Trump’s authority to strike Tehran.
Last week, seven Republicans in the House of Representatives voted with Democrats in favor of a war powers resolution. For three of them – Zach Nunn and Marjorie Miller-Meeks of Iowa, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina – it was their first vote on the issue against the party leadership’s position.
Nunn and Miller-Meeks are running for reelection in competitive districts. In November, voters will decide who fills all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Mace is not running for Congress again after an unsuccessful campaign for governor of South Carolina.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that Republicans have shown no serious intent to end the war. He linked the shift in rhetoric among some candidates to the tight congressional races.
I find it interesting that some of them who are in tight races and at risk of losing, including in Iowa, Michigan, or Wisconsin, are now starting to say that the war should end.
– Hakeem Jeffries
Thus, the issue of war powers has become part of the election campaign: Democrats are pushing for a vote, while some Republicans are changing their position on the war amid the risk of losing their seats in Congress.