Vulnerable Republicans running for their political lives have, for months, kept quiet or sided with President Donald Trump on the war in Iran.
But as costs rise and voters pepper them with questions on the campaign trail about when the fighting will end, some are changing their tune and breaking with Trump, arguing the war must end to lower prices — including lawmakers who previously voted to continue the conflict in the Middle East.
Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, former Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, are all running in toss-up races that will define the balance of power in the Senate.
Hinson, whose agriculture-heavy state is getting hit with high diesel costs, argued that lawmakers needed to suspend the gas tax, pause diesel exports, “unleash E-15 everywhere we can,” reinstate biodiesel tax credits and create a diesel relief program.
“These actions to lower costs are needed ASAP, and the war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end,” Hinson said.
Her race against Iowa state Rep. Josh Turek is listed as a toss-up, according to the Cook Political Report.
Hinson, however, has voted against every war powers resolution offered in the House. Notably, she voted against the successful war powers resolution when seven House Republicans, including two other Republican members of the Iowa House delegation, voted for it.
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Rogers has been out of Congress since 2015 but is running in one of the most-watched toss-up races this cycle against Abdul El-Sayed, and Republicans hope to flip a state that eluded them when Trump ran for his second term two years ago.
Shortly after Hinson’s shift in position, he released an ad echoing an immediate end to the war.
But weeks earlier, the former lawmaker, who voted in favor of the war in Iraq in 2002, told Fox News Digital at the GOP’s made-for-TV huddle in Dallas that he wanted to see the war come to an end.
“Well, first of all, I’d like to see this thing come to an end. They need to find a way to get this thing ended,” Rogers said. “I think that’s certainly where Michigan voters, Michigan families are.”
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“Again, I think we have to understand, do we want Iran to have a nuclear weapon? I think most people overwhelmingly say no,” he continued. “Would they like this to come to an end? I say absolutely yes.”
Husted, who is running in another toss-up contest against former Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio, has also pivoted. And like Hinson, he has voted against every war powers resolution that has hit the floor in the Senate.
“The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” Husted told Politico.
Husted, like others, has pushed several times for a “brief and successful” end to the war over the last seven months, and like several Republicans, has made the case that getting the Strait of Hormuz running and open was a paramount goal.
Olivia Tripodi, a spokesperson for Husted, told Fox News Digital that the lawmaker’s “position has not changed. Any accusation otherwise has not listened to Sen. Husted over the last seven months.”
“Since the beginning of the conflict in Iran, he has called for the military operation to be successful but brief so that gas prices can go down for Ohioans, but that enacting a War Powers Resolution would undermine the U.S. negotiating position and potentially put American troops and allies at risk,” Tripodi said. “He has also supported the president’s efforts to negotiate a settlement to end the war, despite the Iranian side’s refusal to negotiate in good faith and its efforts to extend the conflict and bomb U.S. ships.”
Some Republican leaders are encouraging candidates to break with Trump to make their own bespoke campaigns, particularly as the war’s unpopularity continues to increase.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who is crisscrossing the country to rally support and funds for candidates, said he encourages “most candidates to run their own campaigns.”
“Well, I mean, I think, you know, if I’m running in an environment like this, you know, obviously, you’re gonna develop a campaign and a message that can win in your state. And so, I encourage most candidates to run their own campaigns.”
“I mean, obviously, the president’s gonna be a factor in every election. It’s a midterm election, he’s not on the ballot,” Thune said. “But, I mean, obviously, there are gonna be probably policies of his they agree with, and some that they don’t. But I think they need to be their own person. And I think that’s the best way to do it.”
