中期选举前弱势共和党议员愈发公然违抗特朗普总统

Vulnerable Republicans are increasingly defying President Trump ahead of the midterms

2026-09-19T09:00:29.106Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/19/politics/vulnerable-republicans-defying-trump-midterms

Two vulnerable House Republicans from Iowa voted this week for the first time to rein in President Donald Trump’s Iran war powers. A lawmaker from South Florida, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, released an ad saying Trump’s immigration crackdown had “gone too far.” And a bevy of farm-state Republicans, including some in competitive races, recently revolted after Trump paused tariffs on foreign beef.

Across the midterm map, Republicans are finding ways to stand apart from a unpopular president as they scramble to keep their majorities in Congress.

The dynamic reflects how treacherous the political terrain has become for Republicans as the Democratic offensive stretches into deeply red states like Kansas, Texas and Florida. But it also represents a reversal from recent years, as Trump – who is famously vindictive against critics in his own party – and his political operation haven’t targeted defectors.

“It’s definitely a different Trump than what we saw in the first administration where he didn’t care about burning his relationships with fellow Republicans,” a GOP operative, granted anonymity to speak freely, told CNN. “I think he recognizes he needs to win and to do that he needs to give some more flexibility to our members.”

One Republican operative in a competitive statewide race said there’s been no “edict” that it is OK to split with Trump, summing up the White House’s attitude as, “Do what you gotta do.”

The White House referred comment to the Republican National Committee. An RNC spokeswoman, Natalie Baldassarre, said in a statement that Republicans are “unified and rowing in the same direction” but also acknowledged the political reality of the moment.

“At the end of the day, we care about winning, and these candidates need to run the races necessary to accomplish that,” Baldassarre said.

After voting Tuesday to limit Trump’s war powers, Iowa GOP Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks issued statements that did not mention Trump but spoke bluntly about the conflict. Miller-Meeks said she would “not vote to keep our soldiers in an open-ended war, with Iowans paying too much at the pump.” They were among seven Republicans to vote for the war powers resolution, the most yet.

Trump has yet to say anything about Nunn or Miller-Meeks publicly.

“I think when you do things out of principle, the president certainly understand that,” Miller-Meeks told CNN before casting her vote.

Trump responded to Salazar on Friday, saying he still backs her for reelection but disagrees with her criticism.

“She got a little bit soft on the border – I understand that, I understand that – but I just don’t happen to be there,” Trump said.

Not all battleground Republicans see distancing themselves from the president as a viable strategy.

“President Trump is an independent thinker. And what really deeply disturbs me is a lot of my colleagues are kind of trying to distance themselves from the president for political purposes which I think is dumb,” GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin told CNN.

Even before this week’s striking GOP defections, many Republicans in battleground races have sought to present daylight between themselves and the president. While Trump has called the issue of affordability a “hoax,” they speak directly about lowering costs. Some have pushed back on his escalation of a trade war with Canada. And they have found more local issues where they can claim the mantle of independence.

During a recent debate, Arizona Rep. Juan Ciscomani touted his vote earlier this year to override Trump’s veto of a water infrastructure bill. “That takes some courage,” Ciscomani said.

Earlier this month, Nunn said he was direct in his criticism of some of the administration’s decisions on this front in a private meeting with Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and even adding he brought those concerns directly to Trump at a dinner hosted at the White House for battleground Republicans.

An especially revealing example has unfolded in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, where the GOP nominee, Brandon Herrera, started pushing back months ago against the administration’s plans to build a border wall in Big Bend National Park. He met with administration officials, held a community forum about the construction and attended a rally against it at the Texas Capitol where he declared “nobody” wants it.

The administration paused the project last month. An aide to Herrera’s campaign credited the administration with having been “consistently receptive … rather than being obstinate.”

The administration appears to be especially understanding of GOP anxiety around the war. Vice President JD Vance has struck an accommodating tone about the war’s political peril, recently telling GOP lawmakers they need to “level” with voters about their frustrations.

“Even if you don’t agree with us on every issue, the other party is consumed by craziness,” the vice president said during a podcast taping Tuesday, echoing his speech at last week’s midterm convention in Dallas.

Vance recently campaigned with Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who’s in a surprisingly competitive race in his solidly red state. Marshall recently wrote the administration pleading for relief from rising diesel prices – a product of the war – calling it “a sudden and largely unforeseen cost shock.”

GOP Rep. Tom Barrett of Michigan voted for the third time to limit Trump’s Iran war powers in late July, but just four days later, Barrett stood at Trump’s side during a rally in his own Michigan battleground district, basking in the president’s endorsement and sending back kind words of his own.

Trump’s handling of the war remains deeply unpopular across the country. A recent Quinnipiac University survey found that voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of the situation in Iran by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

Barrett is an outlier among GOP lawmakers, even those in tough races. Most have stood by Trump over the war, gambling that voters will accept economic pain if it means Iran is prevented from obtaining nuclear weapons.

That’s not to say Trump always make it easy on Republicans. He veered off their preferred message in recent weeks by renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America. He also floated renaming New Mexico as “New America,” putting a top GOP recruit for a House seat there, Greg Cunningham, in an awkward spot. Cunningham downplayed it as “satire” while Democrats pounced.

“It’s not that they’re pushing us politically or demanding loyalty on certain things, they’re just doing things without consideration of how it will impact certain districts,” said one Republican operative working on a competitive House race.

Even when Trump has been his most outright upset with Republican lawmakers this year, he hasn’t followed through. Back in February, Trump threatened to primary anyone who voted against him to effectively repeal his tariffs on Canada. That public posturing did not seem to reflect the behind-the-scenes dynamics. Speaker Mike Johnson said at the time that Trump was “not upset” with House Republicans who have voted to curb his executive authority on tariffs, and that “he understands what is going on.”

There were six Republicans who defied Trump on that vote, and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie, an outlier in his long-running personal feud with the president, was the only one to receive a primary challenge.

A major example in Maine

Trump’s recent escalation of his trade war with Canada has been especially trying for Sen. Susan Collins, seeking her sixth term in a northern border state – one that Trump lost in 2024 by seven points.

Collins has opposed a handful of Trump nominees, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; voted against the president’s signature law last year, and has voted multiple times to rein in the emergency powers he has used to issue tariffs.

Recently, Collins successfully sought tariff exemptions for goods including road salt and cement. Collins’ Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, sarcastically thanked her and asked, “What about everything else?”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) acknowledged this week that candidates may diverge with Trump on trade, telling reporters that candidates will “have to handle … that issue in a way that makes sense for their individual states.”

“Senator Collins has worked with five different Presidents throughout her Senate tenure and she has taken the same approach with each of them including President Trump,” Collins campaign spokeswoman Blake Kernen said in a statement. “When she agrees with an effort she will support it; when she disagrees, she does not hesitate to oppose it and to advocate for what she believes is the right outcome for Maine and for America.”

Vance has visited Maine twice in recent months, and each time, Collins has skipped his appearances, citing scheduling conflicts.

That has not stopped Vance from praising the longtime blue-state incumbent – and her independent streak.

“She sometimes makes my job just a little bit harder,” Vance said last month in Brewer. “But she makes it harder because she is coming to work every single day and fighting not for a political party or not for any abstraction. … She fights for the great people of Maine.”