People watch as smoke rises on the skyline after an explosion in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
Associated Press / AP
Congressional Democrats in Oregon and Washington condemned President Donald Trump’s military strike in Iran on Saturday.
This comes hours after the U.S. and Israel launched several missiles into Iran, with Trump vowing to end that country’s nuclear program and bring in a regime change. The Iranian military has already responded by firing missiles at American bases located around the region.
“Donald Trump is unilaterally dragging us into another costly and deadly war in the Middle East that the American people don’t want,” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said on X.
Wyden added that Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are “are putting American lives on the line to make themselves feel powerful, while our military families pay the real price.”
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., a longtime member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said Trump’s decision to launch an attack on Iran “shreds our Constitution, which assigns decisions of war to Congress.”
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz, Oregon’s lone Republican in Congress, said by phone Saturday that members of Congress will be briefed on the situation in the coming days, although he was not sure exactly which day.
“I’m looking forward to the briefing,” Bentz said. “Until then, I really have no comment, because I don’t know the facts.”
U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Portland, said in a written statement that Republicans had been “negligent” by not pushing back on the president’s military actions.
“Donald Trump promised to end wars, not start them,” said Bonamici, the longest-tenured member of Oregon’s House delegation. “The consequences of war are so grave that our founding fathers established in the Constitution that the power to declare war is with Congress.”
Multiple Democrats specifically called for Congress to return to vote on a War Powers Resolution in an effort to stop further military action in Iran.
“The American people must also be LOUD in their opposition,” U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Portland, said. “The public wants peace, not more chaos abroad. Your voice is powerful.”
“The Speaker (Mike Johnson) needs to call the House back now to vote on a war powers resolution to reign the President in,” U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Eugene, said.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a longtime member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, called on each senator to make their position on the strike public.
“Every Senator should be on the record — the American people deserve to know which of their leaders supports another potentially bloody and costly war in the Middle East,” Murray wrote. “No war with Iran.”
This story is developing and may be updated.
