Michael Baumgartner

Rep. Michael Baumgartner is facing a crowded field in his first bid for re-election, and all 11 challengers have at some point criticized the war with Iran.

Of the nine who responded to a request for comment Wednesday, every one said they did not support the ongoing war with Iran, and almost all argued that the Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, had been effective at preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon – until it was torn up by Donald Trump during his first term as president.

Most also argued that Congress should step forward to control the president’s unilateral decision to go to war with Iran.

Attorney and former college administrator Kyle Usrey was the only candidate who suggested that the U.S. was correct to try to directly destroy Iran’s nuclear stockpile and enrichment technology, though he also believed the war was not efficiently accomplishing that objective.

Below is a snippet of each candidate’s response:

Andrew Bartleson

“The war in Iran was a strategic blunder caused by the easily manipulated egomaniac Donald Trump,” Bartleson wrote. “Asking what should be done about the enriched uranium is akin to asking how we should cauterize our self-inflicted wound. A decade ago the world had an agreement that enabled monitoring of Iran’s enrichment activities.”

“Unfortunately, Donald Trump unilaterally ended the JCPOA,” he added. “The world knows Donald Trump cannot be trusted.”

Carmela Conroy

“So far 13 American Military Personnel have been killed, 400 wounded, with an estimated direct cost of $1 billion per day for DoD operations,” Conroy wrote. “This morning I heard that regular Americans have paid $50 billion dollars more for gas and diesel since the war started than they would have at pre-war prices.”

“This tally of ‘blood and treasure’ spent on the war is the tip of the iceberg,” she continued. “It has reinforced many of our allies and trading partners’ loss of trust in us. Hardliners in Iran, including the Revolutionary Guard, are even more powerful now than they were before the war.”

Ann Marie Danimus

“Epic Fury has been an epic failure,” Danimus wrote. “Trump is completely out of his element cycling through disjointed strategies, oscillating between diplomatic memorandums, sudden military strikes and unconventional demands he then drops.”

“His (memorandum of understanding) has no nuclear pact because he is negotiating from a position of weakness,” she added. “Make no mistake, we will be the losers in the deal and is it gonna take a different president to close it.”

Kevin Fagan

“The war is illegal and immoral,” Fagan wrote. “It is causing a humanitarian crisis in Iran while only driving up costs for American families and farmers.”

“The United States should work to achieve a nuclear deal that allows for independent, third-party auditors to access Iranian nuclear facilities, similar to the JCPOA that was already in place before Trump tore it to shreds in 2018,” he added. “Unfortunately, this war has made Iranian cooperation significantly less-likely, alienated our own international allies, and proved that Iran can close the Strait of Hormuz whenever it pleases.”

Matthew Hayes

“War is absolute hell and a nation should only attack another nation if first attacked, such as 9/11 when Al Queda terrorists attacked our nation viciously,” Hayes wrote. “The U.S. should be engaged in diplomacy to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons which is what has been done for almost 50 years!”

Bajun Mavalwalla

“I do NOT support this war with Iran because it does not have any clear objectives,” Mavalwalla wrote, noting he that worked as an Army intelligence officer who served in the American Embassy in Baghdad. “Iran does not HAVE a nuclear stockpile.”

“Iran is one of the world’s bad actors and the United States has actually galvanized its regime for many years into the future by this unforced error,” he added. “… as The JCPOA proved – Iran CAN be negotiated with. But it has to be serious and there have to be both rewards and consequences for Tehran in order to make it work.”

Mike McGarr

“It has cost us about 150 billion dollars, depleted our weaponry stockpiles, caused needless rifts with our allies and the goal has constantly shifted,” McGarr wrote. “And after nearly five months, we’re no closer to any resolution.”

“Republicans have been champing at the bit to go to war with them for decades (I still remember John McCain grinning as he sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” back in 2008), so their reasoning is suspect,” he added.

Kyle Usrey

“I think we should aggressively try to destroy the Iranian stockpile of nuclear material with as little loss of life as possible,” Usrey wrote. “We should rally allied nations to support our effort in eliminating the stockpile and the enrichment method of gas centrifuge technology to create weapons of destruction.”

“We must work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as the world’s nuclear watchdog, which also ensures the safe and peaceful use of nuclear technology,” he added. “And we need to warn nations that supply that technology and any uranium of their complicity in Iran’s attempts at creating nuclear weapons.”

David Womack

“I do not support this war of choice,” Womack said. “It has made the world less safe, put our military members at unnecessary risk, added to the national debt, and driven chaos into the international energy market.”

“It has directly driven up prices here in Eastern Washington particularly for our agricultural sector,” he added. “Congress needs to hold the administration accountable to the Constitution and the War Powers Act.”