Republican candidates in key battleground states are starting to break with President Donald Trump on Iran as polls show the conflict — and its domestic ramifications — are growing increasingly unpopular with voters.
The Republican announcements come weeks before the midterm elections, which have been roiled by a war that Trump and Republicans said would end months earlier. The war has driven up gas prices, particularly diesel, which also has raised the cost of other goods, worsening economic struggles that preceded the conflict.
Two Republicans in key Senate contests, former congressman Mike Rogers in Michigan and Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa, called for the war to end this week, despite their earlier support for the conflict.
“Michigan families are struggling with the price of everyday life,” Rogers said in an ad posted to X. “Groceries cost too much. We have to bring prices down. The war with Iran needs to end and end quickly. When it does, energy costs will plummet.”
He tied his call to end the war to high gas prices, urging a temporary embargo on diesel exports.
Rogers, who is facing Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in a competitive Senate race, was previously an outspoken supporter of Trump’s conflict in Iran, arguing it was needed to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and defending giving Trump authorization to pursue the war.
Hinson, like Rogers, tied her call to end the war to the economy, writing on X 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.”
“The war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end,” Hinson wrote.
The congresswoman, however, has supported Trump’s war in Iran. She told The Washington Post this month that while she wants the war eventually to end, there is a “need to finish the job” and that Iowans understand this military action was necessary to prevent a bigger conflict in the future.
Hinson voted multiple times this year against a resolution in Congress aimed at ending the conflict, including a vote last week where two other Iowa Republicans, Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, broke with Trump and supported removing U.S. forces.
The three Iowa Republicans are in some of the country’s most competitive and closely watched races this year. Hinson is facing Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek in a Senate race that polls show is close. Trump won the state by 13 percentage points in 2024.
“With the negotiating window closed, sustained combat operations now require congressional authorization,” Nunn, an Air Force veteran, wrote on X. “I will not support another open-ended war.”
And in Michigan, Rep. John James, the state’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, said repeatedly on a press call Tuesday morning that the war needs to end.
“We need to make sure that we’re doing everything that we can to keep Americans safe, but we also need to make sure we’re doing everything that we can to end this war quickly,” he said.
James, like Hinson, has voted against resolutions in Congress aimed at ending the war.
Polling on the Iran war has never shown widespread support for the conflict. But as the war nears seven months, support for it has hit new lows. A CNN poll released Tuesday found just 26 percent of American adults approve of the way the president has handled the situation with Iran, down from 33 percent a month after the conflict began.
That downturn mostly has been driven by Republicans. Most Democrats have opposed the war since it began. But only 60 percent of Republicans now approve of Trump’s handling of the war, down from 73 percent in March, according to the CNN poll.
Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, dismissed those Republicans who are breaking with Trump on Iran.
“President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party, and he is committed to maintaining Republican majorities in Congress,” Ingle said.
The conflict’s political ramifications have stemmed largely from its impact on prices. Oil prices have steadily risen since the war began, as Iran has restricted shipping traffic in the critical Strait of Hormuz. This month, Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline to the Red Sea also sustained damage, further shaking the world oil market.
Analysts now predict those price jumps could intensify in the coming weeks.
The national average price for regular gasoline stood at $4.47 on Tuesday, according to AAA, nearly $1.30 higher than a year ago. The national average for diesel hit $6.53 on Tuesday, a record high.
Trump has largely dismissed the rising gas prices. Campaigning for Republicans in North Carolina last week, the president called the high gas prices a “very inexpensive price to pay for what we’ve done” in Iran.
Republicans have not been eager to embrace his rhetoric, and some of Trump’s most loyal lawmakers have warned about rising diesel prices.
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dan Sullivan (R), facing a competitive reelection bid in Alaska, urged Trump to impose an embargo on diesel exports, complaining that prices are hurting farmers and consumers.
“American workers are producing more diesel than they have in years, yet Alaskans are paying higher prices at the pump,” Sullivan said in a news release Tuesday.
The Senate is expected to vote on another Democratic-led war powers resolution this week, which may provide other Republicans with a venue to break with the president on Iran.
Trump previously has criticized Republicans who joined with Democrats to curtail his power to continue the Iran war, calling the votes “meaningless” and labeling the Republicans “bad.”
“Who would do such an unpatriotic thing,” he wrote after one vote in June.
Democrats have cast the Republican shifts on Iran as political expediency, noting they recently stood by the war.
“It’s easy to send a tweet but when you had the chance to vote to end this war, you chose not to. You voted seven times to continue it, including just last week,” Turek, Hinson’s opponent, wrote in response to the congresswoman’s statement.
“John James owns this war, he’s voted six different times for this war, and in November, Michiganders will reject James once again,” said Derrick Honeyman, a spokesperson for the Michigan Democratic Party.
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