Despite Iran War Criticism, Vulnerable Senate Republicans Vote Against War Powers Resolution

The Senate on Thursday afternoon rejected a resolution to force the White House to disengage from hostilities against Iran, with most vulnerable Republicans voting to continue the war.

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Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Susan Collins of Maine joined all present Democrats except for John Fetterman of Pennsylvania in voting for the resolution, which passed the House of Representatives over the summer.

The 50-49 vote was the last chance before the midterms for vulnerable Senate Republicans to issue a substantive break with President Donald Trump on the Iran war, which has proven to be unpopular with voters who are being squeezed by the higher costs it has brought on.

As the Senate returned to session Tuesday anticipating that Democrats would force a vote on the resolution, which would have represented a symbolic rebuke of the war by Congress had it passed, there was speculation that Senators Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska might vote for it before returning home to campaign in October.

“The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” Husted told Politico earlier in the week, while his office said he would vote against the resolution. Meanwhile, Sullivan did not call for an explicit end to the war but did call for a ban on diesel exports in an effort to bring the cost of the utility down, noting that “the cost of diesel is just too damn high.”

Additionally, recent polls have shown that Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas is locked in a tighter reelection battle than expected. Marshall joined his party in voting against the resolution.

Though Marshall told Semafor this week he would “love to see a good way to end this war where Iran doesn’t have nuclear weapons,” he also blasted the resolution. “I think we need to make sure we take care of national security,” said. “We don’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons.”

In the end, Collins was the only Republican senator in a competitive reelection battle to vote in favor of the resolution.

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Several other Republican candidates in competitive races this week have called for the war to come to a swift end. Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson of Iowa, who are running for reelection to the House and for the state’s open Senate seat, respectively, both made statements to that effect.

Miller-Meeks and three other Republicans in tight races voted for a separate war powers resolution that passed the House last week, while Hinson voted against it.

“Like all Americans I want this war to end — I believe President Trump should immediately bring this war to a successful end in a way that keeps Americans safe from the threat of a nuclear armed Iran,” Hinson said after that vote. “And I support the full court press economic sanctions to bring the Iranian terrorist regime to its knees. We owe it to our troops, their families, and every American being squeezed by high prices to deliver a decisive and immediate victory in this war.”

Elsewhere, former Representative Mike Rogers, who is running for the open Senate seat in Michigan, cut an ad calling for an end to the war. “We have to bring prices down,” he said in the ad. “The war with Iran needs to end and end quickly. When it does, energy costs will plummet.”

The Senate returns to session next week for its final legislative days before it is away the entire month of October so that lawmakers can campaign. During the recess, Democrats are sure to harp on the issue on the campaign trail.

“Frankly, what’s going to solve this is the American public’s going to solve it, because this is a deeply unpopular war,” Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who has led Senate Democratic efforts on resolutions to curb the war, told National Review. “You see members of the president’s own party now reversing their positions, who have voted for the war, and now they’re saying they want the war to end.”

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