One Democrat Helps Republicans Sink Iran War Powers Resolution, Saying It Would ‘Weaken Our Hand’ in Negotiations

The House has voted down another war powers resolution that would have forced President Trump to seek congressional authorization for the war with Iran. The resolution failed thanks to one Democratic congressman who sided with nearly all of his Republican colleagues. Congressman Jared Golden, a Marine from Maine who plans to retire at the end of his current term, has represented a red district in the House since 2019. In 2024, Mr. Golden narrowly won re-election even though Mr. Trump carried his district by nearly 10 points. He has made clear that he has a real distaste for Congress itself, saying in his retirement announcement late last year that he feared the prospect of serving even one more two-year term in the House. “Simply put, what I could accomplish in this increasingly unproductive Congress pales in comparison to what I could do in that time as a husband, a father and a son,” he wrote in a Bangor Daily News article. Since that announcement, he has been bucking his party on certain issues. On Thursday, he again decided against supporting the war powers resolution over concerns that it would take some wind out of Mr. Trump’s sails just as he is trying to ratchet up pressure on the Iranians. “The purported aim of this and other War Powers resolutions is to stop the hostilities. Thankfully, the United States and Iran are currently in a ceasefire, and we are negotiating over critical questions of national security and international order,” Mr. Golden said in a statement after the vote. “I believe we must maintain a strong negotiation position over Iran’s nuclear program, freedom of movement in the international waters at the Strait of Hormuz, and how to achieve a durable peace between our two nations,” Mr. Golden added. “At this moment, a resolution like this would weaken our hand.”The resolution failed by a single vote, with Mr. Golden being the lone Democrat to side with the vast majority of his Republican colleagues. One Republican, Congressman Thomas Massie, voted for the measure, while another conservative, Congressman Warren Davidson, voted present. Mr. Golden has long displayed an independent streak, especially in the last year. He was the only House Democrat to oppose his party’s shutdown strategy last November, which saw the longest total shutdown of the federal government in American history. Mr. Golden has also strongly opposedhis party’s handling of the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which began more than two months ago and is now forcing Republicans to fund the department through a weeks-long budgetary process which does not offer any guarantee of success. On tariffs, Mr. Golden has been the only Democrat on Capitol Hill to speak out in favor of Mr. Trump’s import tax strategy. When the House voted on a resolution to disapprove of the president’s tariffs on Canada, six Republicans voted for that measure. Mr. Golden was the only Democrat to vote no. In a Substack letter addressed to his constituents shortly after the Supreme Court struck down much of Mr. Trump’s tariff regime, Mr. Golden wrote that he hoped the president would continue to fight to close the trade deficit, though he added that Congress should be involved in crafting a new strategy. “Like most parents, I want my daughters to have it better than I did. But I fear the structural problems in our trade system are effectively shipping off their future wealth to finance our current consumption. And they’ll be left paying the debt — literally and figuratively,” the congressman wrote at the time. “[T]ariffs are just one piece of the puzzle to correct a decades-long imbalance.”

One Democrat Helps Republicans Sink Iran War Powers Resolution, Saying It Would ‘Weaken Our Hand’ in Negotiations

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