GOP Candidates Break With Trump as His Approval Sinks to 32% Over Iran War
Updated
Updated · USA TODAY · Sep 25
GOP Candidates Break With Trump as His Approval Sinks to 32% Over Iran War
3 articles · Updated · USA TODAY · Sep 25
Summary
Republican candidates in key midterm races are publicly putting distance between Trump, with Iowa's Ashley Hinson and Michigan's Mike Rogers calling for the Iran war to end and Florida's Byron Donalds scrubbing prominent Trump references.
Trump's 32% Reuters/Ipsos approval rating and voter backlash to the nearly seven-month Iran conflict, high gas prices, tariffs and immigration crackdowns are driving the shift, especially in farm states hit by record diesel costs.
The break is spreading into red states: Maria Elvira Salazar said Trump's deportation push had gone "too far," and Kansas Senator Roger Marshall criticized ICE operations as Democrats expand the Senate map into Iowa, Alaska, Texas and Ohio.
Republicans still face a balancing act because Trump remains strong with MAGA voters, yet polling shows 12% of his 2024 voters are wavering on backing GOP congressional candidates and 56% of Republicans now identify more with the party than with Trump.
With Democrats favored for the House and competitive in all nine top Senate battlegrounds, Trump's effort to make the midterms a referendum on himself is increasingly threatening a broader Republican collapse.