Greg Landsman Opposed the Iran War Powers Resolution. Now He Wants the Conflict to End.

Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman faced ire from voters and progressive leaders after he voted against a war powers resolution meant to curb President Donald Trump’s actions on Iran. He said he stands by his vote — but that he would vote for a war powers resolution now if one came to the floor.

Landsman said Wednesday that the U.S. has destroyed much of Iran’s military assets, so it’s time for the operation to end.

“I think it is very important for Trump to bring this to an end. The operation was the operation; it shouldn’t be any more than that,” Landsman told NOTUS.

He first told voters at a town hall over the weekend that he would back limits to war powers.

Landsman was one of four Democrats in the House to oppose the war powers resolution earlier this month, soon after Trump launched strikes on Iran. At the time, he said the operation was not good policy but that Iran has been a “chaos machine.”

Landsman told NOTUS the vote was a tough sell to voters back home, who he believes are exhausted from the frequent use of military force and foreign intervention from the Trump administration.

“The people back home who work really hard on my behalf, who knock on doors and make calls, I made their lives harder,” Landsman said. “And these are some of my favorite people in the world, so that’s tough, because I made what they do harder.”

A senior progressive House member told Axios after the first vote that progressive groups are planning to primary any candidate who voted against the resolution.

Rachel Coyle, co-founder of How Things Work at the Ohio Statehouse, a group of former state house staffers who explain legislation on social media, endorsed Landsman’s primary opponent, Damon Lynch IV, after the war powers vote.

“Sadly, Landsman is a Democrat. But we can make sure he loses his primary election on May 5th,” she posted on X.

Lynch told NOTUS that many voters in the district were surprised by Landsman’s vote.

“There’s no end in sight of this war, and there’s really no saying sorry for all the civilians that have died in the past two weeks, but that’s what he’s trying to do at this point,” Lynch told NOTUS.

“He has a lot of supporters, people who voted for him two times that are very disappointed, and they are looking for an option,” Lynch said.

Landsman said he believes it’s necessary to separate foreign policy issues from partisan politics.

“I do think some of this gets seen through a partisan lens, unfortunately, but I grew up in the ‘90s when it was widely believed that partisan politics stops at the water’s edge,” he said. “You don’t hear that anymore, but that’s what I believe.”

Landsman’s district became significantly more conservative after redistricting last fall. The district now includes much of more conservative Clinton County, and it lost much of the blue suburbs of Hamilton County. Former Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by six percentage points in 2024, but the Cook Political Report now rates the race as a tossup.

Before Landsman defeated Republican Rep. Steve Chabot in 2022, he represented Cincinnati for two separate stretches of over a decade each.

This year, Republican candidates include former businesswoman Holly Adams, nonprofit CEO Rosemary Oglesby-Henry, former CIA officer Eric Conroy and dentist Steven Erbeck.

Republicans are hoping that division within the Democratic base and a trickier-than-expected primary could open the door for a Republican challenger.

“Out of touch Democrat Greg Landsman is running on empty with depleting base support. The verdict from Ohioans on both sides of the aisle is clear: they’re done with Landsman,” NRCC Spokesman Zach Bannon said in a statement.