By Nathan Layne
Sept 21 (Reuters) - Two Republicans in tight US Senate races 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 President Donald Trump over a conflict that has pushed up fuel prices, including a surge in diesel to record highs.
Both Mike Rogers, locked in a competitive race against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, and Ashley Hinson, who is facing Democrat Josh Turek in a close contest
in Iowa, struck a more dovish tone on Iran on Monday, after previously backing Trump's authority to strike Tehran.
The shift was particularly notable for Hinson, a sitting member of the US House of Representatives, who has voted six times against House measures seeking to curb Trump's authority to continue the war, including as recently as last week.
"Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran,” Hinson wrote on social media, while calling for a suspension of gasoline taxes, a pause in diesel exports and other measures, and for the war "to be brought to a successful and immediate end."
The remarks underscore growing concern among some vulnerable Republican candidates that the nearly seven-month-old conflict is becoming a political liability ahead of the November midterms, which will determine whether Republicans can hold onto narrow majorities in the House and the Senate.
Americans have soured on both Trump's handling of the economy and the Iran war as inflation remains stubbornly high. Trump's approval rating has fallen to 32%, a career low, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday.
NEW ROGERS AD
Rogers previously backed Trump's strikes on Iran and argued in a late-July CBS Detroit interview against curbing the president's authority to continue the conflict while he was negotiating to end it.
But in a campaign ad posted on X on Monday, Rogers struck a different tone as he spoke from a grocery store.
"The war with Iran needs to end and end quickly," he said. "When it does, energy costs will plummet. But Michigan families can't afford to wait for that to happen. We need to do something now."
Rogers also called for suspending state and federal gasoline taxes and imposing a temporary halt on US diesel exports.
Diesel prices are especially sensitive politically in Iowa, where agriculture plays an outsized role in the state's economy and farmers depend heavily on diesel-powered equipment and transportation.
Democrats argued the calls for a swift end to the war by Hinson and Rogers amounted to election-year repositioning by Republicans who had previously supported Trump's handling of the conflict.
"Mike Rogers is only flip-flopping now because gas hit $5 a gallon and diesel prices hit record highs," El-Sayed, Rogers' Democratic opponent, said in a statement.
Hinson's opponent Turek wrote on X, "It's easy to send a tweet, but when you had the chance to vote to end this war, you chose not to."
Other Republicans have recently started to take steps to distance themselves from Trump over the war and other issues.
Last week, Iowa Representatives Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, two Republicans facing tough re-election bids for the House, reversed their prior stances and joined Democrats in voting to limit Trump's war powers in Iran.
On Thursday, Representative Maria Elvira Salazar of Florida released an ad warning that Trump's immigration crackdown had gone too far, and that some Hispanic supporters felt betrayed.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne, editing by Ross Colvin and Chris Reese)
