By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) – The US Senate could vote as soon as Thursday to tell President Donald Trump to end the war in Iran or get Congress’ authorization to continue it, as Democrats tee up a vote 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 fuel prices. Democrats are pushing for a vote 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 had said they expected a nonbinding vote on a war-powers resolution before leaving Washington this week or next to return to their districts to campaign. Senate aides said it could take place as soon as Thursday.
The Senate has voted on 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
Two Republican Senate candidates called on Monday for a swift end to the war in Iran, 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.
In the House of Representatives, seven Republicans voted with Democrats to pass a war powers resolution last week. Three of the seven — Zach Nunn and Marjorie 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 re-election races in November, when all 435 House seats and 35 of 100 Senate seats are up for grabs. Mace is not seeking re-election after a failed campaign for South Carolina’s governor.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House’s Democratic leader, accused Republicans on Wednesday of not being serious about ending the war as he noted a recent shift in attitudes.
“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,” he said.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Andy Sullivan and David Gregorio)
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