GOP Senate candidate slams panic button on Trump's war after blowing it off weeks ago

Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) hit the panic button on the Iran war Monday — just weeks after brushing off the very same concerns.

The Iowa Senate candidate, fighting to hold Sen. Joni Ernst's seat, publicly distanced herself from President Donald Trump's war as gas and grocery prices squeeze voters ahead of November, Politico reported.

"Iowans are being squeezed and shouldn't have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line for the war in Iran," Hinson wrote on social media Monday. "We need to use every option at our disposal to provide some relief from high prices." She didn't mention Trump by name.

It marked a sharp pivot.

Back in June, Politico obtained audio of Hinson privately warning donors the war could become a "political liability" if it dragged on, telling one voter she'd attended four funerals for Iowa soldiers killed since December, as gas prices climbed toward $4.15 a gallon nationally, partly blamed on the conflict. Yet just last month, on The Iowa Podcast, she waved away the war's relevance to her own campaign entirely. Asked about her message heading into the general election, Hinson said Iran was "thousands of miles away" and that it's "out of sight, out of mind for so many Americans."

That dismissiveness hasn't matched her voting record, either. Hinson has twice voted against war powers resolutions that would have forced Trump to seek congressional authorization to continue the conflict — siding with the war even as she privately fretted about its political fallout.

Her Monday statement lands as her campaign strategy keeps shifting with the political winds, in a race increasingly seen as one of the most competitive in the country.