(CNN) — GOP Rep. Tom Barrett voted for the third time to limit President Donald Trump’s Iran war powers in late July — attempting to help drive a stinging rebuke of the commander-in-chief that can only pass if members of his own party sign on.
But just four days later, Barrett stood at Trump’s side during a rally in his own Michigan battleground district, basking in the president’s endorsement and sending back kind words of his own.
“He’s going to have a tough race. You got to help him,” Trump said as he called the Republican lawmaker onto the stage.
“I’m proud to stand with you today,” Barrett responded.
Republican operatives describe Barrett and Trump’s alliance as a marriage of political convenience: Trump, who rarely gives ground to anyone who defies him, has granted Barrett unusual latitude to chart his own course — even as he seeks to thwart the president’s war with Iran. Trump recognizes that maintaining the GOP’s House majority depends on suburban districts like Barrett’s.
As he works to defend one of the most competitive seats in the country, Barrett is leaning into his military service, even if his position puts him at odds with the president and much of his party. The race will likely come down to how Barrett is able to walk that tightrope between drawing contrasts with the president without alienating his support; a lonely road in Trump’s Republican Party. Barrett flipped the seat from Democratic control in 2024 Trump carried the district in the election.
Barrett, who served 22 years in the Army and deployed to Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, was one of only four Republicans to vote against the Trump administration’s authorization of military operations in Iran. After the conflict crossed the 60-day threshold requiring congressional approval under the War Powers Resolution, Barrett became the only Republican to introduce a measure authorizing the use of military force in Iran while limiting the scope of military action and setting a firm deadline for ending the conflict.
When Barrett cast his votes to restrict Trump’s war powers in Iran, he’s thinking about his friend who died in Iraq and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery three miles away.
“That weighs heavily on me. And those effects of war weigh heavily on me. I’ve got a lot of friends who didn’t come home. I got a lot of friends who struggled after they came home,” Barrett told CNN.
When asked what his message is for a president who believes Congress does not have a role to play in authorizing the ongoing war with Iran Barrett sidestepped, “You can ask the president that question.”
With Barrett in the audience during Trump’s speech on Monday in Michigan, the president defended his approach to the war.
“When somebody comes up and says, ‘Why are we doing this,’ Just say, ‘Because we cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.’ It’s very simple,” Trump said.
Yet for the Michigan Republican, pushing for Congress to assert itself in how to handle the war is not political, and he doesn’t feel pressured to change his vote.
“This is a vote of conscience for me,” Barrett said.
The calculus Barrett is making — of rebuking Trump over Iran while also finding ways to work with president — is a strategy that GOP operatives believe will work to their advantage. GOP operatives say that Barrett addressing the Iran war head on neutralizes the potential attack from his Democratic opponents as the public has soured on the war effort.
“I think this is really good for him to show that he’s bipartisan and can push back on the things that are really important for him in his district,” one GOP operative told CNN. “I think it’s actually kind of a breath of fresh air for voters.”
Another GOP operative pointed out that Barrett has a helicopter to signal his military experience on all of his campaign branding and added, “He is known as a military guy, and I think that context on this issue means he can speak as a voice of authority, and it comes off as a genuine reaction of him doing what he thinks is best for the military, the country.”
This strategy is in part to consider the vote of Barrett’s constituents like Jason Peterson, who served with him and is a member of his veterans’ advisory group. Peterson views the conflict as needless but says the congressman has shared how difficult it is to build support in the Republican Party for the War Powers vote.
“The conflict should not have even started. I question it myself. I’ve been in uniform and served my country for over 20 years,” Peterson said. “Servicemembers that are in Iran right now or about to be, are being placed in harm’s way for ulterior motives. There have been little answers, in my opinion, in terms of the why.”
Peterson was part of a group of veterans organized by Barrett to meet with Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, giving participants an opportunity to ask questions and explore how to improve the agency.
His district, which represents Michigan’s state capital of Lansing, has a history of representatives who lean into their service experience. Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who represented the district for six years, was a former CIA analyst who served three tours in Iraq. And two of Barrett’s top Democratic opponents come from military backgrounds. Matt Maasdam was a Navy SEAL who deployed throughout the Middle East and the Pacific and Bridget Brink was a US foreign service officer who served under five presidents from both parties.
Maasdam, who was former President Barack Obama’s military aide responsible for carrying the nuclear codes, thinks Barrett is pivoting too little, too late, as it took him months before he joined a handful of his colleagues in voting to restrict Trump’s war powers.
“Barrett knows better. He was in the military. He knows what it means when he gave Trump a blank check the first two times to go to war,” Maasdam said. “He’s doing what he’s doing for political reasons, not because he actually believes it.”
And Maasdam plans to tie Barrett to Trump if he wins the Democratic nomination on Tuesday even if Barrett has tried to stake out his own position on the Iran war.
“Him being out there with Trump fires up Democrats a lot,” Maasdam said.
But Barrett is steadfast in carving out a middle ground, even if he must go it alone in part because he knows his constituents have split views on the war effort.
“People are divided for sure,” he said.
Barrett is betting voters will see his break with Trump not as disloyalty, but as conviction rooted in his military service. In a district where both Trump and Barrett won two years ago, his political future may depend on whether voters believe he can stand with the president — and still stand up to him.
The-CNN-Wire
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