May 19, 2026
The United States Senate may soon put the brakes on President Trump’s ability to continue this war with Iran. That’s because on the eighth attempt, the Senate voted tonight to advance a war powers resolution. But it’s the one new Republican senator who voted against Trump on this that makes this whole story very interesting and may be the first real consequence Trump will face for going after sitting Republican lawmakers.
Now, this is not over. Tonight was just a procedural vote that will eventually set up the final vote on the war powers resolution in the Senate. But it’s still the farthest this legislation has gone since Democrats started bringing it up months ago. If passed in both the House and the Senate, it would order the president to remove U.S. military personnel from Iran or get authorization from Congress to continue the war. The final vote tonight was 50 to 47, with three senators not voting.
Almost all of the Democrats and independents voted yes.
Only one Democrat voted no — Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.
Three senators did not vote — all of them Republicans — including Senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, John Cornyn of Texas, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
All of the Republicans voted no except for Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Those senators have consistently been voting to rein in Trump on this war with Iran. But it’s Senator Bill Cassidy’s brand new vote tonight against Trump on this war powers resolution that may be a flashing warning sign of things to come for the president and the White House.
See, on Sunday, Senator Bill Cassidy — a powerful Republican who is the chairman of the Senate Health Committee and has held that seat since 2015 — lost his primary election in Louisiana, which means he’ll be out of a job at the end of this year. He lost because President Trump backed his primary challenger. See, typically in this scenario, the president would endorse the incumbent of his party so that the party has a better chance to hang on to the majority after the midterms. But Trump, as we know, only values loyalty. And he has made no secret that he believes Bill Cassidy is disloyal to him because back in 2021 Cassidy voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment.
But since then, Cassidy has done a lot for Trump, including as the chairman of the Health Committee advancing the controversial nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary.
But now that Cassidy lost that primary because of Trump, and Cassidy knows he’s out of a job, it seems like he’s got nothing left to lose. Which could be dangerous for the president because the Republican majorities are tight in the Senate. And lawmakers like Cassidy still have critical votes to cast for the next seven months.
And here’s the thing — Cassidy isn’t the only Republican that Trump has targeted. Of course, there’s also Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who is in a nasty primary race with Ken Paxton. Today, Trump endorsed Paxton instead of the incumbent Cornyn. That Texas primary is next week, and if Cornyn loses, he too will be out of a job at the end of this year and will probably blame Trump for it.
So Trump may have to worry about the votes of Bill Cassidy, John Cornyn, and we’ve already seen Republican Thom Tillis of North Carolina also challenge Trump because he too is out of a job at the end of this year. These three could really create a big headache for Trump for the rest of 2026.
See how your Senator voted here.
