2026-08-18T09:00:29.122Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/18/politics/republicans-iran-war-donald-trump
随着对伊朗战争持续近六个月，且进一步危及共和党在中期选举中的胜算，一些共和党人对唐纳德·特朗普总统的这场战争愈发失去耐心。
但在竞争最激烈的众议院和参议院席位选举中，处境岌岌可危的共和党议员大多仍站在特朗普一边，赌选民会为了国家安全而忍受战争带来的经济阵痛。
曾在阿富汗和伊拉克服役的战斗老兵、艾奥瓦州众议员扎克·纳恩周一在该州对记者表示：“我们现在就该解决这个问题，把它搞定。”他将此与民主党人形成对比，称民主党人主张“干脆放弃”。
这是中期选举中的核心矛盾：共和党目前正以微弱优势保住众议院多数席位，同时也希望继续把持参议院多数席位。一项又一项民调显示这场战争不受欢迎，但共和党人不愿公开与在党内仍具声望的总统决裂。
“这个国家里有一个人不在乎油价上涨——只有一个——不幸的是，这个人大概掌控着我们的命运，”亚利桑那州共和党战略家巴雷特·马森说道，“对共和党人来说，这是在钢丝上走平衡木：既要支持总统，又要体察选民正在经历的痛苦。”
西弗吉尼亚州参议员吉姆·贾斯蒂斯周一在华盛顿对记者表示，这场战争已经变成“一团乱麻”，共和党需要更好地回应选民对经济的担忧。
“过去几个月里，每个人都袖手旁观，说‘哦，会好起来的，会好起来的’，而我一直都在说：‘如果你们看不到普通民众——那些托比和伊迪丝们——正在受苦，那你们就是活在洞穴里’，”贾斯蒂斯说道，“我们绝对需要更贴近他们的心声。”
众议院议长迈克·约翰逊是特朗普的亲密盟友，周一在弗吉尼亚州与摇摆选区众议员詹·基根斯一同竞选时发表了务实的评价。基根斯将于11月对阵前民主党众议员伊莱恩·卢里亚。
“伊朗冲突当然是油价上涨的导火索，这场冲突已经拖得太久了，”约翰逊对记者说道。
与此同时，约翰逊也放出了乐观论调，称他相信“我们将进入一个新阶段……能将油价压回正常水平，同时也能压低食品杂货价格”。
特朗普并非总能为那些担忧战争政治后果的共和党同僚提供帮助。他淡化了对油价上涨的担忧，称自己“永远不会为对伊朗采取军事行动道歉”。他还质疑中期选举期间开展竞选活动的必要性，因为他不会在11月的选票上出现，不过他已经批准动用个人政治行动委员会的数百万美元帮助处境脆弱的共和党候选人。
周一公布的路透社/益普索民调显示，仅有三成选民认可特朗普对伊朗问题的处理方式。这样的数据给了民主党人可乘之机，将这场战争作为竞选的核心议题。
周日在亚特兰大的集会上，中期选举中处境最脆弱的民主党议员之一、佐治亚州参议员乔恩·奥索夫抨击特朗普在民众因他发动的战争受苦时漠不关心、分心自顾。
“为了发动战争欺骗全国，将民众视为傻瓜，将服役人员当作棋子，这是极其卑劣的行径，”奥索夫说道。
攻击广告越来越多地将共和党描绘成奉行无休止战争、推高民众生活成本的政党。致力于选举民主党退伍军人的组织“投票退伍军人”上周发起了针对共和党参议员丹·沙利文的广告宣传，指责他导致阿拉斯加州迪林厄姆地区的油价涨到每加仑9美元——尽管该州农村地区的油价长期以来远高于全国平均水平。
“数十亿美元流向海外，阿拉斯加人却要为钱包大出血买单，”广告旁白说道，该广告聚焦于沙利文投票反对限制特朗普对伊朗战争权力的记录。
沙利文竞选团队的发言人内特·亚当斯在一份声明中表示，这位参议员“支持采取果断行动，阻止这个世界上领先的恐怖主义支持国家获取核武器，而这对美国、美国军人、我们的盟友以及被伊朗挟持的全球能源市场都是威胁”。
在处境脆弱的众议院共和党议员中，密歇根州众议员汤姆·巴雷特和宾夕法尼亚州众议员布莱恩·菲茨帕特因投票限制特朗普对伊朗的战争权力而引人注目。但他们仍是少数派，大多数共和党同僚都认为这场战争值得坚持下去。
基根斯在本月早些时候的播客采访中承认，她希望看到冲突“快速解决”，但同时敦促支持特朗普的做法。
“我们需要继续支持（军方），支持总统明确提出的目标：确保伊朗不再拥有核武器，确保霍尔木兹海峡畅通无阻，”基根斯说道，“我支持这些军事行动，我每天都和我们的男女军人及其家属站在一起。”
全国共和党国会委员会表示，此次选举是两种选择的对决：共和党致力于解除伊朗武装，而民主党“花了十年时间为这个政权提供资金支持”。
“共和党竞选的纲领就是：保障美国安全、守住边境、降低成本、削减税收、恢复常识，”发言人迈克·马里内拉说道，“特朗普总统的领导让美国在海外更强大，在国内更安全。”
民主党国会竞选委员会在一份声明中反驳称，共和党人“盲目追随唐纳德·特朗普的私心”。
“他们宁愿为伊朗无休止的战争辩护，也不愿为自己的选民挺身而出，”民主党国会竞选委员会发言人艾丹·约翰逊说道，“这将让共和党失去多数席位。”
CNN记者摩根·里默对本文亦有贡献。
‘One person kind of controls our fate’: Republicans confront growing midterm peril due to Iran war
2026-08-18T09:00:29.122Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/18/politics/republicans-iran-war-donald-trump
Some Republicans are growing impatient with President Donald Trump’s war in Iran as it stretches to nearly six months and threatens to further imperil their chances in the midterms.
But in the most competitive House and Senate races, vulnerable Republicans are largely standing behind him, gambling that voters can stomach the economic pain of the war for national security.
“Let’s deal with this now, and let’s get it done,” Rep. Zach Nunn of Iowa, a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, told reporters Monday in his state, painting a contrast with Democrats who, he said, are advocating for “just giving up.”
It is a central tension in the midterms, when the GOP is defending a thin House majority and hoping to keep its Senate majority too. Poll after poll shows the war is unpopular, but Republicans are reluctant to publicly break with a president who remains popular inside their party.
“There is one person in this country who doesn’t care about gas prices — just one — and unfortunately that one person kind of controls our fate,” said Barrett Marson, a Republican strategist in Arizona. “For Republicans, it is a balancing act on the thinnest of wires to still support the president but also feel the pain that voters are going through.”
Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia told reporters Monday in Washington that the war has become a “mess” and that Republicans need to do a better job addressing voter concerns about the economy.
“We’ve gone through months that everybody sat back and said, ‘Oh, it’ll be OK. It’ll be OK.’ And I’ve been the voice that’s been saying, ‘You people are living in a cave if you don’t see that the folks out there, the Toby and Ediths out there, are hurting,’” Justice said. “We need to absolutely be more in tune with them.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, offered a matter-of-fact assessment while campaigning Monday in Virginia with swing-district Rep. Jen Kiggans, who will face former Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria in November.
“The Iran conflict has been the cause, of course, of gas prices going up. It’s drug on,” Johnson told reporters.
At the same time, Johnson struck an optimistic note, saying he believes “we’ll be getting into a new phase … that will hold gas prices down to planet Earth and that will also bring down grocery prices.”
Trump has not always been helpful to fellow Republicans who are concerned about the political consequences of the war. He has downplayed concerns about gas prices going up, saying he will “never apologize” for taking military action against Iran. And he has questioned the need to campaign during the midterms because he is not on the ballot in November, though he has green-lighted using millions from his personal PAC to help vulnerable GOP candidates.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Monday found that just 3 in 10 voters approved of Trump’s handling of Iran. Numbers like those have given Democrats an opening to make the war a staple of their campaigns.
During a rally Sunday in Atlanta, one of the most vulnerable Democratic lawmakers in the midterms, Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, tore into Trump as disengaged and distracted as Americans suffer from a war he started.
“There’s something uniquely despicable about lying a nation into war, treating citizens as fools and those who serve as pawns,” Ossoff said.
Attack ads are increasingly painting Republicans as the party of unending war and rising costs. VoteVets, a group that works to elect Democratic veterans, launched an ad campaign last week that targeted Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan over the war, blaming him for $9-per-gallon gas in Dillingham, Alaska, though rural parts of the state have long had prices well above the national average.
“Billions sent overseas and Alaskans get socked in the wallet,” a narrator says in the spot, which focuses on Sullivan’s votes against reining in Trump’s Iran war powers.
A Sullivan campaign spokesman, Nate Adams, said in a statement that the senator “supported decisive action to stop the world’s leading state sponsor of terror from acquiring a nuclear weapon which was a threat to the United States, American service members, our allies, and to global energy markets held hostage by Iran.”
Among vulnerable House Republicans, Reps. Tom Barrett of Michigan and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania have stood out for voting to limit Trump’s Iran war powers. But they remain outliers as most of their GOP colleagues argue that the war is worth seeing through.
Kiggans, during a podcast interview earlier this month, admitted she would like to see a “quick resolution” to the conflict but otherwise urged support for Trump’s approach.
“We need to continue to support (the military) and to support the objectives which the president has made clear, to make sure Iran, again, doesn’t have nuclear weapons and the Straits of Hormuz are kept open,” Kiggans said. “I support those military actions and I stand with our men and women in uniform and their families every day of the week.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee suggested the election was a choice between Republicans committed to disarming Iran and Democrats who “spent a decade bankrolling the regime.”
“That’s the record Republicans are running on: keep America safe, secure the border, lower costs, cut taxes, and restore common sense,” spokesman Mike Marinella said. “President Trump’s leadership has made America stronger abroad and safer at home.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee countered in a statement that Republicans were “blindly following Donald Trump’s ego.”
“They’d rather defend an endless war in Iran than stand up for their constituents,” DCCC spokesperson Aidan Johnson said, “and it will cost Republicans the majority.”
CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.