Trump’s War With Iran Drags Down Republicans in Midterm Elections

As President Trump warned in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in recent days that he might “annihilate” Iran, a growing number of Republicans were scrambling to find distance from a costly war that has swelled into a midterm crisis for the party.

The split screen showed how Mr. Trump and his party’s battleground candidates are increasingly at odds as the November elections approach. With no clear resolution in sight, the war has sent the prices of gasoline, diesel and heating oil upward, and cost increases have spilled across the economy. Mortgage rates have also climbed to seven percent, squeezing prospective homeowners already struggling with inflation.

While Mr. Trump is talking about escalating the war if he cannot strike a deal with Iran, Republicans in competitive races are losing patience with the fighting.

Representative Ashley Hinson, the party’s Senate nominee in Iowa, called at a news conference Friday for an “immediate” end to the war, saying she was “incredibly frustrated” by rising costs. Former Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee in the Senate race in Michigan and an early cheerleader for the war, released an advertisement on Monday in which he declared that it “needs to end.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/us/politics/iran-war-republicans-midterms-trump.html