Democrats who had found unusual unity in opposition to President Donald Trump now face a test after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran reportedly killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to political and polling signals tracked by the party. The moment comes as Democrats look ahead to a midterm election year in which they are trying to narrow the gap in their effort to reclaim the U.S. House.
In the months leading up to the strikes, the Democratic Party had largely consolidated against Trump’s hard-line immigration tactics, along with other criticisms tied to his economic policies and his association with Jeffrey Epstein. But the war powers debate tied to the Iran strikes is now forcing Democratic leaders to thread a needle: condemn the action and Iran’s leadership while also pushing Congress to act quickly enough to limit what Trump can do next.
Democrats’ early approach balanced condemnation with calls for Congress to pass a war powers resolution that would restrain Trump’s attack options. Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, made the political stakes clear in remarks on Monday, telling senators they needed to pick a side as the resolution heads to the floor.
“As soon as our resolution comes to the floor, senators need to pick a side,” Schumer said, adding, “Stand with Americans who don’t want war, or stand with Donald Trump as he single-handedly starts another war.” His comments reflected an effort to keep members focused on procedural leverage rather than letting the debate fracture along foreign-policy lines.
Even so, divisions have surfaced among Democrats, particularly those aligned closely with Israel. Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio said he would not back an Iran resolution, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey also said before the strikes that he would vote no. Another key break came from Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who had supported a war powers vote tied to Venezuela in January but rejected arguments that the Iran attack was illegal, according to the report.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries responded to Fetterman’s stance with frustration, saying on CNN that “John Fetterman knows better.” The exchange highlighted how the party’s push for unity could be undermined by disagreements over how to characterize the strikes and what limits Congress should seek.
The struggle over messaging is not confined to Democrats. The report said Republicans also face internal dissent, noting that Trump told Americans Monday that the operation could last four to five weeks while he has not laid out a clear exit strategy and has warned that U.S. casualties could mount. Republicans see a political opportunity in that uncertainty, arguing Democrats will look divided or reflexively opposed.
Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana framed it as a partisan contrast, saying, “For my Democratic colleagues, this is not about what’s best for our national security or what’s best for protecting the American people,” then adding, “This is about how to defeat Donald Trump.” That kind of characterization could shape how voters interpret the Democratic debate on the war powers resolution, particularly as election campaigns turn to early tests.
At the same time, Democrats are contending with an internal political and emotional debate that has deepened during the war in Gaza, with younger Democrats and progressive activists pushing for different priorities than the party’s earlier consensus around Israel. The report traced how Biden’s loyalty to Israel during the 2024 campaign differed from the views of younger generations who were outraged by the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, and it said that, by the time Kamala Harris became the top ticket, some younger voters remained hard to win over.
Paco Fabian, political director for Our Revolution, said Democrats “aren’t monolithic” and pointed to shifting electoral signals, including results from a New Jersey special election last month. The report described how an American Israel Public Affairs Committee-aligned super PAC tried to block the moderate candidate Tom Malinowski after he questioned unconditional aid, and it said the effort backfired with progressive contender Analilia Mejia winning the primary. Fabian said that, given the moment, he did not think it helped AIPAC and Israel.
“Given what’s going on right now, I don’t think the moment is doing AIPAC and Israel any favors,” Fabian said. The report also cited Gallup polling released last month that suggested Americans’ sympathy between Israelis and Palestinians had moved toward a more even split, and it said early polling after the strikes showed more disapproval of the U.S. decision to take military action in Iran than support.
Election timing could bring the effect of these disputes quickly into view. The report said the political impact of the attacks could emerge as soon as Tuesday, during the first primary contests of the midterm campaign season. In North Carolina, it described Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam’s bid to unseat two-term Rep. Valerie Foushee, noting that Allam had backing from progressives and that Foushee’s campaign rejected AIPAC-tied contributions this cycle after earlier support relationships in 2022.
In Texas, it described Democratic voters in Houston voicing alarm about the attacks, including one voter who said affordability should be the top priority for Trump and another who called the bombing “uncalled for.” The report also said the fallout could extend to other contests in March, including an Illinois primary for Daniel Biss’s bid for the seat of retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky, where AIPAC-aligned groups criticized Biss and Biss pointed to what he called a backlash involving AIPAC-aligned money and a Trump-aligned policy agenda.
On Capitol Hill, some Democrats focused on unity not for its own sake but for the procedural goal of passing the war powers resolution. Biss, who spoke about the need for Democrats to act as a “strong, clear, vocal, united opposition party,” said he wanted unity on both the procedural argument and “the basic acknowledgment that this war is wrong.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said he was more focused on achieving a bipartisan vote than on party unity itself, and he said he wanted the resolution to pass.
As the war powers debate moves toward a vote, the report suggested the Democratic Party’s cohesion—built after months of aligning against Trump’s immigration and other policies—will face one of its first immediate stress tests. The outcome could shape not only how the party argues inside Congress, but also how voters react in primaries where Democrats are already signaling that divisions over Israel and foreign policy could influence results quickly.