How Trump’s ‘little detour’ to Iran became a roadblock in the midterm elections

WASHINGTON (AP) — Noor Dubow says he regularly votes for Republican candidates who he believes align with his economic views — even though he's never been a fan of Donald Trump, finding himself repelled by some of the president's dehumanizing rhetoric toward immigrants.

But this year, when Dubow cast his early ballot in the midterm election, he found himself tipping more toward Democrats because of his frustration with Trump's decision to go to war with Iran.

“Where are the Republicans in Congress?” asked Dubow, 44, a dispatcher at a trucking logistics firm in Columbus, Ohio, where he has a bird's eye view of the disruption that surging fuel prices are having on the economy. "Why aren't the Republicans holding Trump accountable?”

The Iran war, which Trump often describes as a “little detour,” has emerged as an unforced liability for the president, who once promised to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars. Republican strategists privately acknowledge that the war is severely damaging the party's push to retain control of Congress for the final two years of Trump's presidency as rising gasoline prices drive up costs across nearly every sector and new hostilities emerge.

High energy costs and voter fatigue over the nearly eight-month-old war — one that Trump predicted at the onset would last a matter of weeks — are weighing heavily on Republican candidates.

Regardless of the outcome of the Nov. 3 elections, an AP-NORC poll published last week found that voters from both major political parties want the next Congress to focus on making life more affordable and end the war in Iran that's had enormous ramifications for the global economy.

The situation has only become more complicated for Republicans making their case to voters. The conflict has spread, with Iran-backed Houthi rebels carrying out a series of attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil infrastructure and airports. A Saudi-led coalition has responded with its own deadly attacks on Houthi-held territory in Yemen.

Over the weekend, the State Department said it was reducing staffing at four U.S. embassies in the Middle East after receiving intelligence that Iran has stepped up efforts to target American personnel in the region and elsewhere.

Diesel prices continue to hover near all-time highs in the U.S., creating trouble for Republicans in typically conservative states such as Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and Texas who find themselves knotted in competitive races with Democrats.

Yet, Trump has consistently downplayed the conflict's economic impact as he rallies his supporters to try to keep the GOP's grip on both chambers of Congress.

Trump repeatedly insists that the war's end is near, only to threaten that a new, intensive round of bombing could very well be in the offing once the election passes — often within the same campaign speech or a single exchange with reporters.

He also argues that elevated gas prices are a temporary inconvenience worth paying to defang Iran.

Trump at a weekend rally in Michigan said that he has no regrets about launching the war and even argued that its economic impact has been less severe than he had expected.

“Somebody said, ‘If you had it to do again...’" Trump told the friendly audience. "I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ I thought gas would be double or triple. And it’s a small price to pay for taking a nuclear weapon away from maniacs.”

The president's mixed message on Iran has left Republican candidates in a difficult, if not untenable, position, said Christopher Borick, director of the Lehigh University Opinion Observatory.

“Trump's messaging on the war is resonating with a shrinking portion of the electorate,” Borick said. “For voters disappointed with the direction of the conflict, there's little by way of the president's claims that would change their negative outlook.”

Only a few elected Republicans have parted ways with Trump over the Iran conflict. Trump, for his part, has insisted that the midterm elections would have no bearing on how he approached the conflict.

But some party strategists have been sounding the alarm for months.

Early in the summer, five Republican strategists involved in key races or advising campaign leadership told The Associated Press that they had begun seeing warning signs that the war could hurt their candidates if the conflict did not wind down soon.

In June, after Trump forged an interim ceasefire agreement with Tehran, Trump and White House officials appeared more confident. But the deal unraveled within weeks.

At that point, campaign officials in some battleground races became more forceful during internal conversations that House districts Trump won easily in 2024 looked like they were becoming competitive, said the Republican strategists, who were not authorized to comment publicly on the internal party data and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Oil prices peaked in May, fell in June and surged again in September as Trump threatened to escalate the conflict before backing off and suggesting a deal could be around the corner. The national average has hovered above $4 per gallon since the middle of June.

As the Labor Day holiday passed, strategists said internal polls showed voters were more frequently tying the war to higher grocery prices and travel costs.

Trump has dismissed critics who argue that the war is driving an affordability crisis for Americans as pushing a “hoax” or “scam” invented by Democrats. But internal campaign polling suggests that Trump's argument has not resonated with American voters, the strategists said.

In interviews, even some Republican voters who say they support Trump's decision to launch the war admit gas prices are testing their patience.

Clay Coey, 59, said he sometimes cringes when he fills the tank of his 2010 Chrysler Sebring, even as he says he's willing to temporarily pay higher gas prices to eliminate what he sees as a major security threat to the U.S.

“Do I like it? No, I drive this old beast,” said Coey, an auctioneer from DeWitt, Michigan. “However, there does come a point in time where you have to sit here and say, what is worth the cost?"

Some voters say Trump fumbled by predicting the war would be over in a matter of weeks.

Elizabeth Marlett, 61, of Moville, Iowa, said she wished Trump had avoided setting a timeline for the conflict and wished he would order the U.S. military to act more forcefully to force Tehran to capitulate. Still, she's sticking with Trump.

“We need to support our commander in chief, even if things take longer than expected," said Marlett, a small-herd beef rancher from Iowa's GOP-heavy northwest. “That’s life, and we can’t run from something we’ve started.”

Meanwhile, Trump's decision to start the war has been seen by some supporters as a betrayal of a central tenet of the Republican leader's “America First" campaign pledge: the promise to keep the U.S. out of the sort of “forever wars” that bogged down some of his recent White House predecessors.

Sean O'Brien, 21, a student at Auburn University in Alabama, said Trump's Iran decision left him “very disillusioned.”

O'Brien earlier this year attended the Conservative Political Action Conference, a major gathering for those on the political right. Now, he's rethinking his allegiances.

“At the moment, I expect to vote Democratic,” said O'Brien, who considers himself an independent.

Beaumont reported from Sioux City, Iowa. AP journalists Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos in Columbus, Ohio, and Jacqueline GaNun in DeWitt, Michigan, contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One, Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

A bird flies low over the water as cargo ships lie at anchor in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, early Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

A woman feeds her ballot into a scanning machine at an early voting site in Haverstraw, N.Y., Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A truck drives past a fuel price board for gasoline and diesel at a gas station on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Jackson Chourio set the tone at the plate, Brice Turang sparked an historic offensive outburst and Robert Gasser shut the door on the mound.

The Milwaukee Brewers are one victory from their first World Series title after routing the Tampa Bay Rays 10-1 on Monday night thanks to a trio of young players who have shined in October.

Chourio bookended Milwaukee’s eight-run fifth inning with two of his four hits, and Turang's two-run single opened a barrage of scoring with two outs.

“He was tremendous. Locked in. Gives us a big lift,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said about Chourio, who has eight hits in three World Series games.

Gasser, the rookie left-hander, pitched one-hit ball and faced the minimum through six innings as Milwaukee rolled to a 3-0 lead in the Fall Classic. Game 4 is Tuesday night at Tropicana Field, where many Brewers fans showed up Monday and cheered from behind the visitors’ dugout.

“It is really cool when you go on the road in such an intense atmosphere to have that support,” Gasser said. “Normally it’s 35,000 against nine, but tonight we had 20,000 people behind us.”

Gasser allowed a line-drive single to Yandy Díaz leading off the bottom of the first and then retired 14 straight before Victor Mesa Jr. walked to begin the Tampa Bay sixth.

With the help of a caught stealing and a double play, Gasser became the first starter to face the minimum 18 batters through six innings of a World Series game since Arizona's Curt Schilling in 2001 — and the first lefty to do it since Sandy Koufax for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965.

Chourio finished 4 for 5 with a double. Turang and William Contreras each went 3 for 5 as Milwaukee racked up 16 hits off “Fastball Freddy” Peralta and five relievers to win its eighth straight postseason game and fourth in a row on the road.

“I think that you could say this is one of my better games,” Chourio said through a translator. “Really I was just taking every at-bat like it could be my last and trying to find any way I could to get on base. Because I know, as long as I get on base, there’s guys behind me who could score.”

Of the 43 previous major league teams to fall behind 3-0 in a best-of-seven postseason series, only the 2004 Boston Red Sox rallied to win four straight when they beat the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

“It’s kind of that chip and a chair mentality,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “We’ve got a seat at the table. We’ve got to do something with the chip. Obviously the only thing we can do is win tomorrow.”

Gasser became the first starter for Milwaukee to get an out in the sixth inning this postseason. He’s allowed one run in 15 innings over three starts, all on the road.

Peralta, the MVP of the ALCS against Cleveland, ran out of gas against the Brewers. He was charged with five runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings against his former team.

“Just a little out of sync. I think he felt really good. Tried to power through it a little bit,” Cash said. “Just inconsistencies in and out of the strike zone led to a bunch of really good at-bats by the Brewer lineup.”

After a pair of tense, down-to-the-final-pitch, one-run games in Milwaukee, the Brewers put this one out of reach in the fifth with a postseason-record seven straight hits — all with two outs.

It was the first time in World Series history a team scored eight two-out runs in one inning.

“I was sitting in the dugout getting ready to go. There was two outs, and next thing you know, 40 minutes later, I have to go out on the field,” Gasser said. “It was special. I had a smile on my face the whole time. It’s just surreal when something like that happens.”

Chourio began the rally with a one-out single and then stole second with two outs. Christian Yelich walked, and Peralta exited after Contreras’ infield single loaded the bases.

The inning appeared to end when third baseman Junior Caminero fielded Contreras’ bouncer and threw to second base for a forceout. But the call at second was overturned after a replay review, and Cam Booser entered.

Turang ripped a liner that shortstop Taylor Walls couldn’t short hop. It bounced off his glove and rolled into shallow center field for a two-run single.

“Knife to the chest,” Walls said.

Garrett Mitchell followed with an RBI single, Cooper Pratt grounded a two-run double down the left-field line and Sal Frelick lined a run-scoring double to make it 8-0.

“It’s definitely deflating,” Cash said. “How could it not be?”

Cole Sulser replaced Booser and allowed an RBI single to David Hamilton and an RBI double to Chourio, who became the second-youngest player with four hits and a stolen base in a World Series game behind Ty Cobb in 1908.

Murphy has compared Chourio to Pro Basketball Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant.

“Kobe was one of the best basketball players of all-time,” Chourio said. “I had the opportunity to read his book, some of it at least, but the discipline he had, I think that’s what you try to do from the great ones. You just take little things you can take from them and implement it into your own game. Hopefully I’m doing a little bit of that.”

Brandon Woodruff pitched the ninth for the Brewers, allowing one run and two hits in his first appearance in 3 1/2 months. The two-time All-Star had been sidelined by a shoulder injury that originally was thought to require surgery.

Of the 25 previous teams who took a 3-0 lead in the World Series, 21 swept and four won in five games.

Originally the Seattle Pilots for one season in 1969, the franchise moved to Milwaukee and was renamed the Brewers in 1970. Their only other trip to the World Series came as an AL team and ended with a loss to St. Louis in Game 7 in 1982.

Led by the 67-year-old Murphy, the Brewers need just one more win to finally end their championship drought.

The Rays led the AL with 98 wins in the regular season, swept the Yankees in three games in the Division Series and beat the Guardians in six games in the ALCS.

But they made uncharacteristic mistakes on the bases and defense during the first two games in Milwaukee, and completely unraveled at home.

Tampa Bay also has never won a World Series in 29 seasons. The Rays lost to the Phillies in five games in 2008 and to the Dodgers in six games in 2020.

Wearing their white Devil Rays uniforms, they were eager to play in front of their home fans at the quirky, cavernous Trop, which had its roof shredded by Hurricane Milton in October 2024 and needed major renovations.

But their cowbell-ringing, towel-waving fans among a sellout crowd of 40,388 couldn’t lift them past the surging Brewers.

Milwaukee led the majors with 103 wins, beat the Padres in four games in their NLDS and swept the Dodgers in the NLCS. With a win in Game 4, the Brewers would become the first team to sweep an LCS and World Series since the 1976 Cincinnati Reds.

Griffin Jax is scheduled to start Game 4 for Tampa Bay. The Brewers hadn't announced a starter.

“We've been preparing for this day a lot,” Chourio said. “We have one more to lock in for tomorrow to complete the mission.”

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Milwaukee Brewers left fielder Jackson Chourio connects for an RBI double during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Milwaukee Brewers' Brice Turang hits two-run single during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Cam Booser leaves the game during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Milwaukee Brewers' Garrett Mitchell celebrates past Tampa Bay Rays catcher Nick Fortes after scoring during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Milwaukee Brewers third baseman David Hamilton, left, Tampa Bay Rays catcher Nick Fortes, center, and pitcher Cole Sulser, right, watch his RBI base hit during the fifth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla., between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)