Vulnerable Republicans in California’s redrawn congressional districts back war in Iran

Facing tough re-election battles in this year’s midterm elections, California Republicans have lined up to support President Trump’s war against Iran, which polls show is unpopular.

They include Republicans, whose reelection chances were already diminished by voters’ passage of Proposition 50 in November, which gave Democrats in Sacramento the authority to redraw the state’s congressional districts in favor of Democratic candidates.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall), a longtime critic of Iran who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that the latest attacks were overdue and legal under the White House’s existing authority to combat terrorism. He said Iran is also deeply involved in this terrorism.

asked on sunday by ABC News Regarding Trump’s promise not to start new foreign wars during the 2024 campaign and the attacks on Iran contradicting this, Issa said that the belief that Trump owes immediate answers regarding his intentions is “crazy”, that the attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities last summer made people around the world “happy” and that the latest attacks are a continuation of this effort.

He said Iran has been financing terrorism for decades, expanding extremism in the region, and asking whether the Trump administration has a particular reason to attack now is the wrong question.

“The question is, almost half a century later, do we need a specific trigger, or are we going to say at any point in time that’s enough, we’re going to take out this tiger’s claws and its teeth, and then see if it’s actually willing to drink milk instead of blood,” Issa said.

Issa’s district is one of five districts that Democrats reshaped under Proposition 50 to better favor a Democrat. The measure was championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and others in response to similar mid-decade redistricting efforts that Republicans undertook at Trump’s insistence to curry favor with states like Texas.

It’s unclear whether Republican candidates’ support for Trump on Iran would make them even more vulnerable. Some in California, including the Iranian diaspora in Los Angeles, were pleased with Trump’s actions and the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a conservative cleric who ruled the country with brutal force for decades.

But some recent polls show that the war is unpopular.

According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll By the close of Sunday, only 1 in 4 Americans approved of U.S. strikes on Iran, while nearly half (including 1 in 4 Republicans) said they believed Trump was too willing to use military force. Overall, 43 percent of those surveyed said they did not approve of the strikes, 27 percent said they approved, and 29 percent said they were not sure.

A. Text poll from SSRS for CNN A survey conducted on Saturday and Sunday found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans said they opposed the decision to take military action against Iran. A. SSRS’s separate text survey for the Washington Post 52 percent of Americans opposed the strikes and 39 percent supported them.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona), who has long been hawkish on Iran and has accused the Biden administration of pursuing a weak policy toward the Middle Eastern country, is another Republican who has come out strongly in favor of the war effort in a redrawn district.

Defense Appropriations Committee chairman Calvert

Rep. Young Kim (R-Anaheim Hills), another member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee facing reelection in a reelection district, shared a committee post on Saturday at

On Monday, he reposted a video of a demonstration in Los Angeles supporting attacks by Iranian Americans and others, writing: “We are so grateful for our president’s decisive action and our vibrant Iranian American community. From Southern California to Tehran, let freedom ring!”

Also facing redrawn districts and supporting the fight were Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) and Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin).

Valadao wrote on

“I commend President Trump for taking decisive action, and I pray for our brave men and women across the region who are working to keep us all safe,” Valadao said.

In Sunday’s

Kiley wrote that he looked forward to being “briefly briefed on the scale of operations, the forward-looking strategy, and the risks to American lives and interests that must be urgently met” and that Congress “must be centrally involved in defining and pursuing the United States’ forward-looking goals.”

Leading California Democrats condemned the attacks; He said that although the Iranian government under Khamenei is corrupt and guilty of terrorism and violence, there is no evidence that it poses an “imminent threat” to the United States and there is no authority from Congress for Trump to unilaterally engage the country in war there.

Most Democrats running in the state’s redrawn congressional districts took a similar stance.

“I am deeply disturbed that President Trump is leading us toward another war of regime change without congressional authorization, public support or a clearly defined mission,” said San Diego Assemblywoman Marni von Wilpert, a Democrat who is challenging Issa. “The Iranian regime is ruthless and should never obtain nuclear weapons – but the Constitution is clear: only Congress can declare war, and it must now reconvene and exercise that authority.”

Esther Kim Varet, an art dealer and one of several Democrats challenging both Calvert and Kim in the state’s new 40th District in Orange County and the Inland Empire, wrote of