Eli Crane Iran War Checks & Balances Arizona

Eli Crane Spent Years Attacking 'Forever Wars' and 'Reckless Spending.' Both Pledges Vanished From His Website After He Voted to Keep Us in a War and for a $4.7 Trillion Debt Increase.

In July his campaign site opposed funding foreign wars and promised to rein in reckless spending. Both sections are gone. His “about” page has dropped his anti-abortion line. A poll now shows the race within the margin of error in a district Trump won by 15.

MAGA Report Cards · Sep 05, 2026

Eli Crane Spent Years Attacking 'Forever Wars' and 'Reckless Spending.' Both Pledges Vanished From His Website After He Voted to Keep Us in a War and for a $4.7 Trillion Debt Increase.

A month ago, the campaign website of Eli Crane told voters two things about him.

It said he opposed spending money on foreign "forever wars." And it said he would "rein in reckless spending" that was piling up the national debt.

Both sections are now gone. So is the anti-abortion line on his "about" page.

The Arizona Mirror documented the changes on September 4, comparing the current site against what it said in July.

What the site used to say

Under a heading that read "fighting for those who fought for us," the site said this as recently as July:

"Instead of funding forever wars and throwing away money we don't have, Eli believes we should be focused on taking care of those who risked it all for our freedom."

The heading is now "fighting for veterans." The forever-wars line is gone, replaced with language about "fraud-ridden nongovernmental organizations."

A second section made the fiscal case:

"As a small business owner, Eli knows you can't just print money. As inflation rates and our national debt skyrockets, Congress continues to spend money we don't have. This is unacceptable and Eli has consistently gone against the grain, voting to rein in reckless spending."

That whole section has been deleted.

What he did in between

Crane has voted three separate times to let Trump keep waging war on Iran without a vote from Congress — against war-powers resolutions on March 5, April 16 and May 14, each of which would have ordered U.S. forces out of "unauthorized hostilities." That war is now in its seventh month.

He also voted for Trump's budget bill, which cut taxes on businesses and the wealthy and is projected to add $4.7 trillion to the national debt.

So the two commitments that disappeared from the website are the two his voting record contradicts most directly.

He was not quiet about this before

Crane is a former Navy SEAL, and opposing foreign war spending was not a footnote on his site. It was something he said out loud, repeatedly, for years.

Here he is on a podcast in 2024, talking about Ukraine:

"They're seeing the headlines, you know, when they pump gas or they're buying groceries, you know, they're struggling to make ends meet. They're wondering, why the hell are we sending, you know, hundreds of billions of dollars over to a country that most people can't find on a map and escalate a war with the biggest nuclear superpower in the world?"

And in 2022:

"It's just that I have to ask myself, are we putting Americans first? And I don't believe that we are. And so that's something when I continue to see us send more money that we don't even have, we have to print this money because we already are... I think, $33 trillion in debt. You know, it really bothers me because we continue to spend money that we don't have on, you know, protecting somebody else's sovereignty and border."

Every argument in those two quotes applies to Trump's Iran war. Gas prices, groceries, money we do not have, escalation abroad. Crane voted to keep it going anyway, and then took the words down.

What the war he backed is costing his constituents

Trump's Iran war has cost the average American household at least $1,200 so far, and Congress has never voted to authorize it. Only about a quarter of Americans think the war has been worthwhile. Eighteen service members have died and 757 have been wounded.

Crane's replacement text points at nongovernmental organizations. His votes point at Tehran.

Why now

Crane's district has been safe Republican territory — Trump carried it by 15 points in 2024. It is not looking safe this year. Polling conducted August 21–24 for his opponent, former Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez, put the race inside the margin of error — Crane 46%, Nez 44%. National Republican leaders had already funneled money into his campaign earlier this year.

The rewritten site pivots hard toward local concerns: protecting rural Arizona land, rebuilding after the wildfires that burned Northern Arizona, helping Arizonans reach the American Dream. The old version never mentioned rural Arizona at all. His "about" page dropped his anti-abortion stance and swapped in a quote saying he is "committed to putting Rural Arizona first."

He is not alone. The Mirror notes that two Kentucky Republicans have scrubbed mentions and photos of Trump from their own campaign sites.

We have covered this pattern before. Andy Biggs, also of Arizona, deleted his "Defending Life" page. Bill Huizenga deleted his own record from his website the day a poll showed him losing. Andy Barr's site dropped the "Trump-endorsed" badge and the rally photo two and a half months after Trump cleared the field for him.

Crane's campaign did not respond to the Arizona Mirror's request for comment.

What the record shows

Eli Crane campaigned for years on opposing foreign wars and reckless spending. He then voted repeatedly to let Trump wage an unauthorized war on Iran, now in its seventh month, and voted for a budget bill projected to add $4.7 trillion to the national debt. Both pledges have since been deleted from his campaign website, along with the anti-abortion line on his "about" page, in a district Trump won by 15 points where his opponent's own polling now puts the race inside the margin of error.