Just weeks before the midterms, a number of vulnerable Senate Republicans were presented with the choice Thursday to go with voters on the Iran war or stick with President Donald Trump.
Most chose Trump.
Senators voted 49-50 on a measure to direct Trump to cease hostilities with Iran, with the war powers resolution falling just short of the simple majority it needed. This is the 12th time a similar measure to rein in Trump has failed — senators have twice before adopted a resolution directing Trump to cease hostilities with Iran.
It was a tense vote for senators facing tough re-election campaigns, with voter frustration rising along with gas prices. The national average for regular gas was $4.48 per gallon on Thursday, according to AAA. And diesel cost $6.51 per gallon.
But GOP loyalty to Trump still won the day.
While the war powers resolution won some Republican support — Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined all but one Democrat (Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania) to support the measure — it still wasn’t enough.
Even swing-state Republicans feeling the pressure from their voters continued to stand by Trump.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., who cast the pivotal vote against the measure, declined to offer specifics on why he opposed the measure.
“I have a 2:55 flight from Reagan so I have to go,” he said after the vote.
Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, who told Politico on Tuesday that the war needed to “come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” also opposed the resolution.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, who has found himself in a surprisingly competitive race — prompting his pushback against immigration enforcement in his state — also voted against the resolution.
And Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who called for a diesel export ban amid rising fuel prices, voted “no.”
“I think a country that kills and wounds over 2,000 American service members, which is what they did, the largest state-sponsored terrorism, needs to be reestablished deterrence,” Sullivan told reporters ahead of the vote.
Despite the vote’s failure, there’s still evidence of growing frustration among Republicans on Capitol Hill.
The vote marked Tillis’ first time supporting a war powers resolution, after voting “no” on 12 previous occasions. Before the vote, Tillis said he heard the administration refer to the conflict as a “war” for the first time on July 10, and wasn’t briefed within the 60 days following.
“They need to inform Congress more, they need to be clear on their strategic objectives and they need to be more engaged — at least the Armed Services Committee,” Tillis said.
The retiring senator told reporters he doesn’t typically support “show votes,” but planned to vote in favor of the war powers resolution “to say it is time to engage Congress, folks, if we’re gonna be there for the long term.”
“I have complimented the president for going into Iran — he’s the first president to have the guts to do it, and Epic Fury was a success,” Tillis said. “But what followed after that, since April, has been — it’s very difficult to determine if we’ve achieved any success.”
Tillis referred to the referendum as a “show vote” because, despite the resolution’s success in the Senate, it has no bearing on U.S. policy.
Other lawmakers have turned the threat of a war powers resolution into greater sway over the administration behind the scenes. Cassidy told reporters ahead of the vote that he’s been briefed on the war by the administration twice in the last week and a half.
“Once they understood I had that concern, they have since been regular in their briefings,” Cassidy said. “I appreciate that.”
Lawmakers have already successfully pushed an Iran war powers resolution through both chambers. An earlier measure secured majorities in the House and Senate in June. But under the 1973 War Powers Act, the resolution doesn’t require the president’s signature, and therefore didn’t carry the force of law.
Thursday’s vote was an attempt to add a little more oomph to lawmaker’s opposition, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told MS NOW.
“We shouldn’t have to do a second one, because the president should follow the law, but we are doing a second one on the theory that maybe after a number of months, more people will join us,” Kaine said ahead of the vote. “The American public is even more deeply opposed to this war. At some point, we hope that the president and his team will listen.”
Some lawmakers are already looking ahead to future negotiations over funding measures, which could provide the war’s opponents with more leverage. Murkowski, who supported the war powers resolution, said the November-December lame duck session would feature debates over funding the war.
“That’s going to be the conversation in all of November and all of December, is how are we going to deal with this?” Murkowski told MS NOW. “People are talking reconciliation, talking supplemental.”
Thursday’s vote, the 14th of its kind in the Senate, came to a head as the Iran war is having a significant impact on the campaign trail — and how some Republicans are running their races.
Voters are feeling the high costs of gas. A Fox News poll released last week found that 61% of respondents see gas prices as a major problem, while just 29% said it was a minor problem.
Candidates in tight races seem to be reading those tea leaves.
On Monday, Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, who’s running for Senate in the Hawkeye State, wrote 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.”
“We need to use every option at our disposal to provide some relief from high prices,” she said, adding that she was “working every day to deliver bipartisan results for Iowans.”
Hinson, however, opposed the Iran war powers resolution every time it was brought up in the House.
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