GOP breaks ranks on Iran as voters fume over war’s costs

Republican support for the war in Iran is dropping as Senate GOP candidates speak out against it and voters increasingly blame high gas prices on the nearly seven-month conflict.

Growing public opposition among even Republican voters has put incumbents such as Sens. Jon Husted (R-Ohio), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) and Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) in a tough political position.

Several of these Republican candidates, including Husted; former Rep. Mike Rogers (R), who is running for Senate in Michigan; and Rep. Ashley Hinson, the Republican Senate candidate in Iowa, are calling for a swift end to the war.

“The war with Iran needs to end, and end quickly,” Rogers urged in a campaign video Monday.

Hinson on Monday wrote on social media that “the war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end.”

Husted told Politico on Tuesday that “the war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices.”

The calls are also coming from the lower chamber.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in an interview with a local TV station urged “a resolution” to the war.

Recent polls show that Rogers and Husted are trailing their Democratic opponents, Abdul El-Sayed and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), respectively.

Hinson, meanwhile, is locked in a tough race the Cook Political Report last month shifted to “toss-up.”

A Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss voter frustration over the war and high gas prices said there’s growing political pressure on GOP candidates to oppose the unpopular conflict.

“People are very, very concerned about costs. They associate higher fuel costs with the Iran war, directly. Farmers are very, very concerned. All their input costs are being driven up. It’s a problem,” the senator said.

Hinson on Monday wrote that “Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday there are “a lot of Republicans” who want to end the war as quickly as possible.

“Everybody wants to see wars come to a conclusion,” he said. “We are hopeful that the administration’s efforts will lead to getting the Strait of Hormuz open, getting the shipping lanes open and taking some of the pressure off of the American people’s pocketbooks.”

“We want to see that conflict come to an end,” he said. “I think the administration is working aggressively to make that happen.”

Sen. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.) called the conflict “a quagmire” but warned that President Trump can’t simply walk away while Iran still has a path to obtain nuclear weapons.

“All of us want it to end as soon as possible,” he said. “Our president decided we needed to go [to war] and we went, and I was fully supportive of going.

“Unexpected things come up within war,” he added. “Now we’re in a quagmire to some degree and energy prices are high. … This thing has turned into something [Trump] didn’t expect — none of us expected this, that this would go on this long.”

Democrats are expected to force a vote later this week on a House-passed concurrent resolution ordering Trump to withdraw troops from the conflict.

The measure is expected to pick up more Republican support, and a source familiar with the whip count said it has a good chance of passing.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) now says he will vote for the war powers resolution directing Trump to end the conflict.

“We’re reaching a point to where we just need answers. We got to know what success looks like,” Tillis said.

Tillis wants the Trump administration to lay out its plan for concluding the war and to ask for a formal authorization to continue the conflict.

“There’s never been any way to measure what success looks like,” he said. “For every step we take forward, we take a step back.”

He warned that the war has become a major political problem for Senate GOP candidates and the broader Republican Party.

Tillis said Republicans have seen “consistently downward-trending negative reaction since” the first strikes against Iran in February.

“We don’t know how long it’s going to go,” he said. “So we’re afraid it could be a forever war. It’s a war that’s obviously hurting people economically. Why are we doing this? What is the goal?”

Tillis said support for the war among Republican voters is dropping significantly.

A CNN poll conducted by SSRS of 1,206 U.S. adults nationwide found that support for the war among self-identified Republicans has dropped by more than 10 percentage points since March.

Six months ago, 73 percent of surveyed Republicans approved of Trump’s handling of the conflict, but that number has since dropped to 60 percent.

A Fox News poll of 1,211 registered voters nationwide conducted Sept. 11-14 found that 71 percent of voters think Trump doesn’t have a clear strategy for ending the war.

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are expected to vote later this week for the Democrat-sponsored war powers resolution. They have voted several times previously for Iran-related war powers measures.

A Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations said other GOP colleagues could “flip” on the Iran war powers resolution.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is hinting he may also vote for it, complaining that there has been “very little” to “no” consultation with Congress about ending the conflict.

Centrist Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who has repeatedly voted against war powers resolutions related to Iran, is expected to vote this week with Republicans against the measure.

Republican senators on Wednesday urged their colleagues in tough races — or candidates in battleground states such as Michigan — to say what they need to about the war to win in November.

“If I’m running in an environment like this, obviously you’re going to develop a campaign and a message that can win in your state. I encourage most candidates to run their own campaigns,” Thune said when asked about the calls from Rogers and Hinson to bring the Iran conflict to a swift end.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said GOP candidates “are responding to their voters.”

“They got to listen to their constituents and be responsive,” he said.