There’s a growing number of Republicans in the US House willing to defy President Donald Trump over his war with Iran, but Alaska Republican Rep. Nick Begich III isn’t among them.
Begich stuck with 203 Republicans on Tuesday and voted against a resolution seeking to end the war, putting him on the losing side of the issue after seven Republicans—three more than the last vote—joined all Democrats in approving the measure, 220-204.
The measure’s passage is largely symbolic, given that Trump could simply veto it if it somehow cleared the Senate, but for some Republicans in battleground states, it was an important vote to show they’re listening to voters’ concerns.
“Americans do not want another forever war,” Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. She was one of two Iowa Republicans to break from the president on Tuesday. “I will not vote to keep our soldiers in an open-ended war, with Iowans paying too much at the pump.”
And for as high as Iowa’s fuel prices are, Alaska’s are higher.
Gasoline in Alaska is about a dollar more per gallon than in Iowa, with an average price of $5.06, and diesel is about 30 cents more per gallon, at a record $6.44 per gallon, according to AAA’s fuel price tracker. Since the war started, the price of a gallon of gas in Alaska has gone up by $1.48 per gallon, causing the average household to spend $460 more on gas, according to the Iran War Energy Cost Tracker from the Climate Solutions Lab at Brown University.
The rising diesel prices have dealt a blow to the state’s fishing industry, where boats can use 100 gallons or more of diesel fuel per day.
At a fisheries debate on Saturday, Begich shied away from talking about the pressure that high fuel prices have put on the industry. But that’s one that his Independent opponent, commercial fisherman Bill Hill, didn’t let slide:
“The Iran War is a really, really terrible thing in terms of how it’s impacted our industry,” he said at the debate. “I don’t know how many of you have been impacted by tariffs or the outcomes of the Iran War, but the fuel costs that I paid this summer were $2 a gallon more than last year, and they were already high. And then we start talking about things like food and groceries.”
Like Begich, Miller-Meeks has been supportive of the war, defending Trump’s explanation that it was an effort to prevent a nuclear Iran.
That’s not an opinion most Americans share. According to polling earlier this summer, about two-thirds of adults say the war with Iran hasn’t been worthwhile. The same poll found only 2 in 10 of those polled wanted to see continued military action in Iran.
While Begich has sought to distance himself from Trump, casting himself as a centrist-minded candidate, his record shows he’s voted in lockstep with the president, earning himself a 100% Trump score with VoteHube, a nonpartisan tracker that monitors how often members of Congress vote with President Trump.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Bluesky.
