These desperate Republicans are jumping Trump's Iran war ship

“The war with Iran needs to end and end quickly.”

These were the unexpected words spoken Monday by former congressman and current Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, who The Nation’s Jeet Heer has described as “not just an ardent supporter of this particular war but, more generally, a mega-hawk who has pushed for war with Iran for more than 20 years.”

Why the sudden change? Rogers said that if the war ends, “energy costs will plummet…but Michigan families can’t afford to wait for that to happen. We need to do something now.”

Rogers’ sudden economic concern and antiwar stance might have something to do with the fact that he is currently trailing his Democratic opponent Abdul El-Sayed by seven points in a new Suffolk University Poll. El-Sayed has called Rogers “the worst of the neocon version” of Republicans.

“When inveterate war hawk Mike Rogers suddenly declares, ‘The war in Iran needs to end—and end quickly,’ you know he’s losing—and losing badly,” former Republican Michigan congressman Justin Amash wrote Monday on X.

Rogers is not the only Republican now running from the war – and Trump — amid a tumultuous midterm season for the GOP. The generic ballot polling average at Real Clear Politics has Democrats ahead by 8.5 points.

“Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran,” Republican congresswoman and Iowa Senate candidate Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) wrote Monday. “We need to use every option at our disposal to provide some relief from high prices.”

Hinson is behind her Democratic opponent Josh Turek by eight points in a recent Marist poll. Turek responded that “it's easy to send a tweet but when you had the chance to vote to end this war, you chose not to. You voted seven times to continue it, including just last week.”

“It's time to actually end the forever wars and put Iowa and Iowans first,” Turek said.

Community notes found that Hinson had at least four opportunities to vote to end the war but did not. “Ashley Hinson out with a statement whining and crying about the consequences of the war she supported,” observed Drop Site News’ Ryan Grim.

“If you read far enough in, you find she’s calling for an end to it. But just last week the House voted on a war powers resolution to end the war and she voted against it.”

“Polls have her losing her senate race in Iowa,” he added.

Republican Congressman and current Florida gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) has been a loyal Trump supporter and said previously that the U.S. war on Iran means “fighting for America.”

On Tuesday, the Miami Herald reported that Donalds’ campaign website has scrubbed several references to President Donald Trump, who had endorsed him. A button to “Chip in to Support Trump Endorsed Byron Donalds” at the top of the Republican candidate’s homepage was removed, as was text reading, “TRUMP-ENDORSED Proven Conservative Fighter BYRON DONALDS” and some other Trump messaging. A photo of Donalds with Trump remains on the donation page as do donate boxes that reference the Trump endorsement.

Recent polls have shown Donalds in a dead heat with Democratic opponent David Jolly.

Another pro-Trump Republican gubernatorial candidate, Wisconsin’s Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), told reporters on Tuesday that he believes "we should be exiting Iran, that it's time to move on...time to come home, take care of business here in America."

The latest poll showed Democratic rival David Crowley slightly ahead of Tiffany.

“No matter how hard he tries to run from it, Tom Tiffany voted five times to continue Trump’s war in Iran,” Crowley said in a reply to his opponent’s call to end the war.

A new CNN poll published Tuesday showed that almost two-thirds of Americans don’t believe the US is winning in Iran and also don’t believe the president is doing much to end it. The poll also revealed that much of this continuing decline is coming from Republicans. While Democrats and independents have been negative throughout the war, a 73% Republican approval rating of Trump’s handling of the Iran conflict in March has now dropped to 60%.

For Republicans under 45, 53% disapprove.

An Economist/YouGov poll released Tuesday also showed that a majority of Americans favor impeaching Secretary of War Pete Hegseth “for starting a war with Iran without authorization by Congress.”

Donald Trump’s approval ratings continue to sink to record lows, particularly on the economy .

This president, this war, and his economy could be a losing combination for Republicans facing tough races and many seem to know it. Trump said earlier this month that the midterm election results will not affect how he conducts the U.S. conflict in Iran, and insists that the results will not be an indictment of him or the war because he’s “not running.”

Sure, Mr. President. But it appears that for many voters, and some of your own party’s candidates, you might be the only one running.