Two new ads from Democratic groups are slamming vulnerable Republicans for supporting President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, linking the conflict to increased costs for Americans at home.

A 30-second ad by the liberal veterans group Vote Vets targets Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), notes the recent surge in gasoline prices and asks viewers to urge Van Orden to vote against more funding for the war.

“We’re paying the cost every damn day of this war in Iran. But for Congressman Van Orden, we’re not paying enough,” says a man identified in on-screen text as a Marine Corps veteran. “We understand the cost of war, but if we don’t have the money to take care of our veterans, we damn sure can’t afford another war.”

Another spot, from a nonprofit group with close ties to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, rips Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) for voting against a resolution to end the war this month while blaming her for Medicaid cuts Republicans passed last year.

“Susan Collins voted to give Donald Trump a blank check for his war in Iran. But [at] home in Maine, Susan Collins supported cutting Medicaid and raising our insurance costs,” a narrator says in the ad from Majority Forward.

“More than 60,000 Mainers are seeing their health care costs rise drastically,” a local news anchor featured in the clip states.

The pair of ads shows Democrats’ increasing confidence that Trump’s decision to launch the war will be a political millstone around the necks of Republicans and evidence the president and his party are too focused on ideological goals and foreign adventurism and not enough on voter concerns about the cost of living.

Voters were already worried about affordability when the war spiked gas prices, and now Republicans in Congress are gearing up to pass a budget bill to pay for the war with fresh cuts to domestic programs. (There is a significant caveat to the Democratic attack on Collins: She was actually one of only three Senate Republicans to vote against final passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, the legislation Republicans passed last year with major Medicaid cuts. In fine print, the Majority Forward ad points to Collins’ later vote against a symbolic Democratic bill to undo the cuts.)

Collins, a moderate who represents a state Vice President Kamala Harris won in 2024, is seen as the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection in 2026, and one Democrats must defeat to have any chance of reclaiming Congress’ upper chamber.

Van Orden won reelection by just three percentage points in 2024 against waitress and small business owner Rebecca Cooke, whom Democrats have rallied around again in 2026.

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