Jim Risch calls for Iran war to end as rising costs take center stage in Idaho Senate race
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Orion Donovan Smith, The Spokesman-Review
WASHINGTON (The Spokesman-Review) – The Idaho Republican who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Thursday the U.S. war with Iran must end to help bring down high costs for Americans, as President Donald Trump appeared to recognize the conflict hurts his party’s chances in the Nov. 3 elections.
In an interview with The Spokesman-Review, Sen. Jim Risch said the concern he hears most often from Idaho voters is about the rising cost of living, which he attributed both to inflation worsened by excessive government spending during the Biden administration and to the war the United States and Israel jointly launched against Iran in February.
“The conflict in Iran has run up the price of gas and diesel, and this all needs to end,” he said. “Once the conflict is over, it’s going to come down rather quickly.”
The incumbent senator, who faces three challengers in his bid for a fourth term, said his own life experience informs his concern about affordability. He recalled how, when he was 9 years old, his parents scraped together enough money for a down payment on their house in Wisconsin.
“Look, I was born into a poor family,” said Risch, now 83 and among the wealthiest senators. “I grew up poor. I remember the difficulties and the mental pain and everything else my parents went through as they tried to make ends meet, just on cost-of-living things.”
Risch cited a bipartisan housing bill Congress passed in June, which became law despite Trump refusing to sign it, as a concrete step toward making homes more affordable in the future, although he noted “it’s going to take time” before Americans feel the legislation’s effects.
Americans’ average earnings have not kept pace with rising costs since the Iran war began, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although shipping volume through the Strait of Hormuz has partially recovered after Iran blocked the key waterway earlier this year, shipments of oil, gas, fertilizer and other goods are still affected by the conflict and threats to ships have kept insurance costs elevated.
“The conflict needs to end, and when the conflict does end, prices are going to come back down,” Risch said. “The run-up in prices was due to the fact that Iran had the Strait of Hormuz closed. That’s not true anymore – there’s a lot of raw product getting through – but what we have found is what we always find in these supply-chain issues, and that is you don’t really realize how fragile the supply chain is until it gets tested. And when it got tested, what we found out was that it’s the refining capacity that’s now the bottleneck, not the raw product.”
The senator pointed to the recent closure of two oil refineries in California as another factor driving up energy prices in the western United States. As of Friday, according to AAA, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in Idaho was $4.91, a 41% increase from a year earlier. A gallon of diesel, which is essential for agriculture and shipping, cost an average of $6.41 in Idaho, 69% higher than a year prior.
Like most other Republicans in Congress, Risch has voted repeatedly against measures that aimed to end the war, arguing that Trump has the authority to wage war and that invoking the War Powers Act would tie the president’s hands during critical negotiations with Iran. Critics have called for public hearings on the Iran war, which Risch has not done since it began.
One of those critics is Todd Achilles, an Army veteran who is challenging Risch as an independent in a race with no Democrat on the ballot. In an interview Thursday, Achilles – who briefly served in the Idaho Legislature as a Democrat but has pledged not to caucus with either party if he’s elected to the Senate – said Risch is “abdicating his duty as a senator and his oath to the Constitution” by not being more transparent with his constituents in Idaho.
“If he agrees with the White House, then fine, be out there and communicate to the public,” Achilles said. “Is the Iran war raising prices? Absolutely. What do we do about it? I would not do what Jim Risch is doing, which is not hold a hearing. His constitutional duty, as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is to be that voice on foreign affairs. He’s the third most powerful person in the country on foreign affairs, and he hasn’t held one damn hearing on the Iran war.”
The Iran war is deeply unpopular among Americans, with a Pew Research survey conducted from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 finding roughly two -thirds oppose the conflict and one -third support it. Matthew May, survey research director at Boise State University’s School of Public Service, said in an email Friday that his team had not polled Idahoans about the war and he wasn’t aware of any other polls specific to the state.
In apparent recognition that the war is weighing on Republican candidates, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Thursday that the U.S. military “will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the Midterm Elections to be held in the United States on November 3rd.” On Friday, Trump announced he had struck a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to buy diesel from Russia, an effort to lower U.S. diesel prices that represents a major change in U.S. policy that has long sought to cut off Russia’s ability to fund its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Risch is one of the most influential figures in American foreign policy. Asked what role he sees for himself in bringing an end to the conflict with Iran, he said he and his fellow lawmakers “collaborate with the second branch of government a lot,” referring to the executive branch.
“I have had I-can’t-tell-you-how-many meetings – one-on-ones, groups – with all kinds of different agencies, and we listen to what they have to say,” he said. “We make our suggestions, but they’re the experts in it, and they have a constitutional responsibility to defend the country. We have the constitutional responsibility to fund that, and the two have a definite interface to them, and that’s where we are.”
Asked if he had recommended in those private settings that the Trump administration end the war soon, Risch said, “Sure,” adding that “I don’t know if you say it exactly like that.”
“Look, there’s nobody who wants this conflict going on,” he said, explaining he has seen classified intelligence that indicated “Iran was on the cusp of doing something that would have really changed the face of the planet.”
“When this started, the president was criticized – and still is – about starting the conflict,” Risch said. “In years to come, when the information that he had when he decided to start this, when that comes out, he’s going to be exonerated, I think, greatly.”
In addition to Achilles, Risch is being challenged by independent Natalie Fleming and Libertarian candidate Matt Loesby. Election Day is Nov. 3. Idaho voters can register online up to 11 days before the election, or register in person either during early voting or on Election Day.