Senate War Powers Vote Could Force Trump's Hand on Iran

The Senate could hold a Senate war powers vote as soon as Thursday on whether to tell President Donald Trump to end the war in Iran or come to Congress for authorization to continue it. Democrats are pushing for a nonbinding war powers vote before lawmakers leave Washington to campaign, and they want Republicans on the record about a conflict that polls show has become deeply unpopular.

The vote would come roughly six weeks before the November 3 midterm elections, when all 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are up for grabs. With Trump's Republicans struggling to hold their slim congressional majorities, more of them have started edging away from a war that has pushed up fuel prices. Only 34 percent of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week said they approved of the strikes on Iran.

Senate leaders had said they expected the nonbinding vote before leaving Washington this week or next to return to their districts. Senate aides said it could take place as soon as Thursday, Reuters reported. The resolution would not force Trump to do anything, but it would put every senator's name next to a position on a war that now dominates the campaign.

Republicans in tight races start to break ranks

Mike Rogers of Michigan and Ashley Hinson of Iowa, both 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 distance between themselves and Trump. Both had previously backed Trump's authority to strike Tehran.

The shift is sharper in the House. Seven Republicans voted with Democrats to pass a war powers resolution last week, according to reporting by Reuters. 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 re-election races in November. Mace is not seeking re-election after a failed campaign for South Carolina's governor. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York accused Republicans on Wednesday of not being serious about ending the war, noting that several lawmakers in tight races in places like Iowa, Michigan and Wisconsin are only now starting to say the fighting needs to stop.

A record of votes that changed little

If Thursday's vote goes ahead, it will be the latest in a long series of largely symbolic attempts to rein in the conflict. The Senate has voted on Iran war powers resolutions 13 times since US and Israeli forces began bombing Iran on February 28, with two of those votes in favor. The House has held six votes, with three in favor of ending the conflict.

Only one of those measures has passed both the House and Senate, and the White House ignored the result, according to Reuters. Reuters reported in May that the most recent blocked attempt was the seventh such Senate vote this year. The new resolution would be nonbinding, which means it carries no legal force, but Democrats are treating this Senate war powers vote as a way to pressure Republicans in competitive districts and states to take a public stand. The Iran vote is not the only such pressure on the president's unilateral approach: Senator Chris Van Hollen has also been urging Trump to negotiate AI guardrails with China's Xi Jinping, another sign that lawmakers want Congress to have a say in major foreign policy moves.

The midterm math behind the timing

The poll numbers explain why Democrats picked this moment. An Emerson College poll released Thursday found Democrats leading Republicans 53 percent to 42 percent on a generic congressional ballot among 1,000 likely voters, about 40 days out from the midterms. The poll put Trump's job approval at 39 percent, with 58 percent disapproving, and found that 56 percent of voters said he has performed worse than they expected during his second term.

The same poll showed Democrats holding wide advantages among independents and Hispanic voters, two groups that broke for Trump in 2024. Independents backed the Democratic candidate 60 percent to 31 percent, and Hispanic voters did so 64 percent to 31 percent. Forty-one percent of voters named the economy as the most important issue facing the country, but when asked which issues would decide their vote in November, the Iran war ranked first, followed by jobs and tariff policy.

The vote comes as the practical case against the war has grown harder to ignore for voters. Fuel prices have risen since the strikes began, and the cost of living has stayed at the top of voter concerns. For Republicans in competitive races, Thursday's vote is the first time they will have to say on the record whether they still back a war that most voters now oppose.