By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The US Senate on Thursday narrowly rejected a resolution demanding President Donald Trump end the war in Iran or seek congressional authorization, as Democrats sought to put Republicans on the defensive over the unpopular conflict before November's midterm elections.
With polls showing Trump's Republicans struggling to keep their slim congressional majorities on November 3, more of them have been edging away from the war, which has pushed up food
and fuel prices.
However, Thursday's Senate vote was 50-49 against the resolution, largely along party lines. Four Republicans — Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — voted in favor.
Tillis, who is leaving the Senate in January, was the only Republican to vote in favor of a war powers resolution for the first time. Republicans in competitive reelection races, including Jon Husted of Ohio, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Roger Marshall of Kansas, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska and Darline Graham of South Carolina stuck with Trump.
One Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted against the resolution, which passed the House of Representatives in July.
The vote was largely symbolic. The Trump administration has not changed policy in response to previous war powers votes. Thursday's vote took place two days after Trump threatened that he could "annihilate the Islamic Republic" in a UN speech.
Democrats see the votes as a way to put Republicans on the record on a conflict that has become increasingly unpopular with voters. Only 34% of respondents in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week said they approved of the strikes on Iran.
The Senate has considered Iran war powers resolutions 14 times — voting in favor only twice — since US and Israeli forces began bombing Iran on February 28. The House has held six votes, with three in favor of ending the conflict.
Only one has passed both the House and Senate, and the White House ignored the result.
The US Constitution says that only Congress, not the president, can declare war, and Democrats have argued that Trump may have pulled the country into a long conflict by failing to spell out a clear strategy.
Republicans say Trump's actions are within his rights as commander-in-chief.
SHIFTS IN TIGHT RACES
A small number of Republicans have, however, broken ranks on the war.
In the House, seven Republicans voted with Democrats to pass a war powers resolution last week. 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 reelection races in November, when all 435 House seats and 35 of 100 Senate seats are up for grabs. Mace is not seeking reelection after a failed campaign for South Carolina's governor.
And two Republican Senate candidates called on Monday for a swift end to the war, the latest sign that vulnerable candidates are trying to put some distance between themselves and Trump.
Both Mike Rogers in Michigan and Ashley Hinson in Iowa had previously backed Trump's authority to strike Tehran.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House's Democratic leader, suggested Republicans were calling for an end to the war only because they face tough races.
"It's interesting to me that several of them who are in tight races and on the verge of losing, including in places like Iowa or Michigan or Wisconsin, are all now starting to say the war needs to end," Jeffries told a news conference on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Andy Sullivan, David Gregorio and Sanjeev Miglani)
