By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) – The US Senate scheduled a vote for Thursday on a resolution directing President Donald Trump to end the war in Iran or seek congressional authorization, as Democrats sought to force a political reckoning on the unpopular conflict before November’s midterm elections.
With polls showing Trump’s Republicans struggling to keep their slim congressional majorities on November 3, more of them have been edging away from the war, which has pushed up food and fuel prices.
While the Trump administration has not changed course on the war despite Congress’ backing of an earlier resolution, Democrats see the votes as a way to put Republicans on the record. Only 34% of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week said they approved of the strikes on Iran.
Senate leaders scheduled the vote for Thursday afternoon, before leaving Washington to return to their districts to campaign.
The vote also will take place the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who started the war alongside Trump, was due to address the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The Senate has considered Iran war powers resolutions 13 times — two times in favor — since US and Israeli forces began bombing Iran on February 28. The House has held six votes, with three in favor of ending the conflict.
They have been largely symbolic. Only one has passed both the House and Senate, and the White House has ignored the result.
SHIFTS IN TIGHT RACES
However, a small but growing number of Trump’s Republicans in Congress have broken ranks with party leaders to back resolutions calling for Trump to end the conflict or come to Congress for authorization.
In the House, seven Republicans voted with Democrats to pass a war powers resolution last week. Three of the seven — Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa and Nancy Mace of South Carolina — voted against party leaders on the issue for the first time.
Nunn and Miller-Meeks face competitive reelection races in November, when all 435 House seats and 35 of 100 Senate seats are up for grabs. Mace is not seeking reelection after a failed campaign for South Carolina’s governor.
And two Republican Senate candidates called on Monday for a swift end to the war, the latest sign that vulnerable candidates are trying to put some distance between themselves and Trump.
Both Mike Rogers in Michigan and Ashley Hinson in Iowa had previously backed Trump’s authority to strike Tehran.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House’s Democratic leader, suggested on Wednesday that Republicans were calling for an end to the war only because they face tough reelection races.
“It’s interesting to me that several of them who are in tight races and on the verge of losing, including in places like Iowa or Michigan or Wisconsin, are all now starting to say the war needs to end,” Jeffries told a press conference.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Andy Sullivan, David Gregorio and Sanjeev Miglani)
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