Trump faces growing GOP dissent in heartland as policies bite

A growing number of Republicans in the heartland are breaking with President Trump on policies that are unpopular as the GOP worries about paying the price for them in the upcoming elections.

Lawmakers and candidates in Iowa, Michigan and Ohio have called for a quick end to the Iran war amid high gas and diesel prices and the growing unpopularity of the war.

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) was critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operating in his state Wednesday, calling on the agency to better coordinate with local law enforcement.

And Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) spoke out against Trump inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Group of 20 (G20) summit this December in Miami.

The pushback comes as Republicans are worried about the party’s performance in the November midterm elections.

“If Donald Trump isn’t popular in your district or state, you should expect your candidates to try to create some distance. That is the ordinary course of business,” one former Trump administration official told The Hill.

“What is different right now is that Trump is unpopular in a lot more districts, and a lot more states, than anyone expected. But the die is pretty much cast. This is his party now. If it wins, it’s because of him. If it loses, it’s because of him. There’s just no two ways about that,” the former official continued.

The Iran war has led to a number of Republicans facing tough reelection bids calling for a resolution to the conflict.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) echoed those calls in an interview with a local television station Thursday, noting the U.S. military operation in the country accomplished what it needed to. The Speaker did not call for an immediate end to the war and did not provide any details on how the administration could end the conflict.

However, his remarks came after a number of vulnerable Republicans in the House and Senate called for an end to the conflict in an effort to bring prices down.

“Clearly members are increasingly nervous about the costs of the war and that there seems to be no end in sight and still no definition of what success means,” said Doug Heye, a longtime Republican strategist. “No doubt we’ll hear more Republicans echoing similar concerns.”

“It’s the right move to make,” he said of Republicans distancing themselves, “but impossible to tell how much success it will have.”

The war has had a particularly acute impact on Midwestern Republicans as prices for gas and fertilizer skyrocketed as a result of the war. Midwestern and Southern states including Michigan, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Ohio, Mississippi and Tennessee are on the list of states that have seen the biggest percentage increases in their gas prices from a year ago, according to GasBuddy.

Iowa Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) and Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) both called for an end to the conflict earlier this week. Meanwhile, Iowa Reps. Zach Nunn (R) and Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R), who are each facing uphill reelection battles, voted earlier this month on a war powers resolution that would have curbed Trump’s authority in the conflict.

Former Rep. Mike Rogers, the GOP’s Senate nominee in Michigan against progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, also said in a recent campaign ad that “the war with Iran needs to end and end quickly.”

And Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) told Politico earlier this week that “the war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices.”

He is facing a tight race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

“We’re at the tail end of September here. Farmers across the Great Plains, across the Midwest, they’re gearing up for harvest season. That is acres upon acres of products and goods that American farmers are going to be harvesting this fall,” said Preya Samsundar, a GOP strategist.

“They understand what the president is doing is important, but their constituencies are suffering,” she continued, referring to Trump’s objectives in Iran. “They’re not seeing immediate relief, the prices continue to rise and they have to give an account for that.”

Affordability remains a top issue for voters across the board.

A CNN/SSRS poll found that support for the war among self-identified Republicans dropped more than 10 percentage points since March, from 73 percent to 60 percent.

“I think it’s a conflation of things,” said Jason Cabel Roe, a Michigan-based GOP strategist, when asked why Midwestern Republicans have broken with Trump. “Particularly in Michigan, we also have the added economic pressures of the tariff war with Canada. That, I think, only exacerbates the affordability issue in Michigan.”

In a statement to The Hill, the Republican National Committee said the party’s candidates are running the races necessary to best represent their districts.

“Unlike the Democrats who are in a full-blown civil war with extremists, Republicans remain united behind the President’s agenda of cutting taxes, lowering drug costs, and securing our communities. We are laser focused on winning,” said Natalie Baldassarre, the committee’s national press secretary.

Republicans have also been critical of Trump extending an invite to Putin to the G20 summit later this year to be held at Trump National Doral Miami in December.

Young said the visit from Putin would only be valuable if he came to announce concessions, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“I think elevating Vladimir Putin is not where we should be focused right now,” he told reporters. “It should be trying to come up with ways to bring him to the table for a serious negotiation.”

Marshall, who is facing a tough reelection campaign in Kansas, was critical of ICE involvement in Kansas, saying the unit “needs to coordinate with our local law enforcement.”

“Our sheriffs and police know these communities better than anyone, and working together keeps officers and residents safe,” he wrote on social platform X.

A White House official said ICE has multiple partnerships with Kansas law enforcement.

“I don’t think that this is a particularly novel situation except that it’s Trump, and in every election candidates look for opportunities to separate themselves from their party in order to broaden their appeal,” Roe said, noting that past candidates have put distance between themselves and past presidents during elections.

“It’s kind of normal, but Trump has not always been forgiving of people creating that separation. But I think the stakes are so high in this election that it seems to me the White House is probably a little more patient with candidates charting their own path,” he said.