Republicans attempt to ease voter frustration over Iran war

WASHINGTON (AP) — Noor Dubow says he regularly votes for Republican candidates who he believes align with his economic views — even though he’s never been a fan of Donald Trumpfinding himself repulsed by some of the president’s comments dehumanizing rhetoric towards immigrants.

But this year, when Dubow voted early in the election midterm electionhe found himself leaning more toward the Democrats due to his frustration with Trump’s decision to go to office. war with Iran.

“Where are the Republicans in Congress? asked Dubow, 44, a dispatcher at a trucking logistics company in Columbus, Ohio, where he gets a bird’s-eye view of the disruptions that soaring fuel prices have on the economy. “Why aren’t Republicans holding Trump accountable?” »

The war in Iran, which Trump often describes as a “little detour,” has emerged as a direct responsibility for the president, who once promised to keep the United States out of foreign wars. Republican strategists privately acknowledge that the war is seriously harming the party’s efforts to maintain control of Congress during the final two years of Trump’s presidency, as rising gasoline prices drive up costs in nearly every sector and new hostilities emerge.

Voters are tired of high gas prices

High energy costs and voter fatigue in a nearly eight-month war – what Trump predicted at the start last a few weeks – weigh heavily on Republican candidates.

Whatever the outcome of the November 3 elections, an AP-NORC poll released last week found that voters in both major political parties want the next Congress to focus on making life more affordable and ending the war in Iran, which has had disastrous consequences. huge consequences for the global economy.

The situation has become even more complicated for Republicans who are making their case to voters. The conflict has spread, with Iran-backed Houthi rebels realization attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil infrastructure and airports. A Saudi-led coalition responded with his own murderous attacks in territory controlled by the Houthis in Yemen.

Over the weekend, the State Department said it downsizing in four American embassies in the Middle East after receive information that Iran has stepped up its efforts to target American personnel in the region and elsewhere.

Trump insists war costs are no problem

Diesel prices continue to hover near historic highs in the United States, create problems for republicans in typically conservative states like Iowa, KansasOhio and Texas which find themselves stuck competitive races with the Democrats.

However, Trump has systematically minimized the economic impact of the conflict as he rallies his supporters to try to maintain the Republican Party’s hold on both houses of Congress.

Trump repeatedly insists that the end of the war is near, only to then threaten that a new round of bombing could very well be imminent once the election is over — often in the same campaign speech or a single exchange with reporters.

He also claims that high gas prices are a temporary inconvenience worth paying for to destabilize Iran.

Trump to a weekend gathering in Michigan said he had no regrets about starting the war and even claimed that its economic impact had been less severe than he had expected.

“Someone said, ‘If I had to do it again…'” Trump told the friendly audience. “I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ I thought the gas would be double or triple. And it’s a small price to pay to take nuclear weapons away from the maniacs.”

The president’s mixed messaging on Iran has put Republican candidates in a difficult, if not untenable, position, said Christopher Borick, director of the Lehigh University Opinion Observatory.

“Trump’s message on war is resonating with a growing portion of the electorate,” Borick said. “For voters disappointed by the direction of the conflict, the president’s assertions do little to change their negative attitude.”

GOP strategists have been seeing warning signs for months

Only a few Republican elected officials parted ways with Trump over the Iran conflict. Trump, for his part, insisted that midterm elections would have no impact on how he approached the conflict.

But some party strategists have been sounding the alarm for months.

Earlier this summer, five Republican strategists involved in key elections or advising campaign leadership told The Associated Press that they had begun to see warning signs that the war could harm their candidates if it did not end quickly.

In June, after Trump reached an interim ceasefire agreement With Tehran, he and White House officials seemed more confident. But the affair was resolved in a few weeks.

At that point, campaign managers in some battleground races became more forceful in internal conversations about how the House districts that Trump won handily in 2024 appeared to be becoming competitive, said the Republican strategists, who were not authorized to comment publicly on internal party data and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Oil prices peaked in May, fell in June and rose again in September as Trump threatened to escalate the conflict before backing down and suggesting a deal could be imminent. The national average has fluctuated above $4 per gallon since mid-June.

As Labor Day passed, strategists said internal polling showed voters more frequently associated the war with rising food prices and travel costs.

Trump rejected critics who say the war is leading a crisis of financial accessibility for Americans, as a “hoax” or a “scam” invented by the Democrats. But the campaign’s internal polling suggests that Trump’s argument has not resonated with American voters, strategists said.

Some Republican voters are frustrated

In interviews, even some Republican voters who say they support Trump’s decision to start war admit that gas prices are testing their patience.

Clay Coey, 59, said he sometimes grits his teeth when he fills up his 2010 Chrysler Sebring, even though he says he’s willing to temporarily pay higher gas prices to eliminate what he considers a major threat to U.S. security.

“Do I like it? No, I drive this old beast,” said Coey, an auctioneer from DeWitt, Michigan. “However, there comes a time when you have to sit here and say, ‘What’s worth the cost?’ »

Some voters say Trump made a mistake in predicting the war would be over in a few weeks.

Elizabeth Marlett, 61, of Moville, Iowa, said she wished Trump would have avoided setting a timetable for the conflict and instead ordered the U.S. military to act more forcefully to force Tehran to capitulate. Yet she remains loyal to Trump.

“We need to support our commander in chief, even if things take longer than expected,” said Marlett, a small northwest Iowa Republican Party beef farmer. “That’s life, and we can’t run away from something we started.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s decision to start war was seen by some supporters as a betrayal of a central tenet of the Republican leader’s policies. “America First” campaign pledge: the promise to keep the United States away from this kind of “Forever Wars” it bogged down some of his recent predecessors in the White House.

Sean O’Brien, 21, a student at Auburn University in Alabama, said Trump’s decision on Iran left him “very disillusioned.”

O’Brien attended earlier this year the Conservative Political Action Conferencea major gathering of the political right. Now he is rethinking his allegiances.

“Right now, I expect to vote Democratic,” said O’Brien, who considers himself an independent.

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Beaumont reported from Sioux City, Iowa. AP journalists Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos in Columbus, Ohio, and Jacqueline GaNun in DeWitt, Michigan, contributed to this report.