These Republicans spent this campaign as Donald Trump's allies. Most of them put his endorsement front and center, voted for his agenda, and backed his war.

Then his approval rating hit 32%, the lowest of his political career, in a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week. Gas and diesel prices spiked. And with six weeks left before the election, they started running.

"The examples are piling up," CNN's Aaron Blake wrote on Tuesday, "and it's notably happening in some pretty red territory."

We count 14 Republicans with report cards on this site who have tried to put distance between themselves and Trump in the past two months. Here's what each of them did, and the record none of them can delete.

They deleted Trump from their websites

Byron Donalds, the Republican nominee for governor of Florida, ran for a year and a half as "Trump-endorsed Byron Donalds." This week his campaign rewrote its website, cutting at least eight Trump references from the homepage and dropping "Enact the Trump Agenda" from the top of his issues list, the Miami Herald first reported. CNN noted that Donalds has also voiced "concerns" about Trump's plan to send every adult citizen $5,000 if Republicans hold Congress.

Andy Barr, running for Senate in Kentucky, got more from Trump than an endorsement: in May, Trump pushed one of Barr's primary rivals out of the race. By late July, Barr's website had deleted its "Trump-Endorsed" badge and his photo with the president. Louisville Public Media reported that he also cut a line promising to "stand with President Trump," and a paragraph describing him as "Chairman of Trump's primary campaign." His homepage now reads "Kentucky First Always." Trump won Kentucky by more than 30 points.

Young Kim, the California congresswoman, had a homepage in August promising she would "Stand with President Trump to deliver a bold America First Agenda." Within a month, that line was gone, and so was her Issues page. Her spokesman called the idea that she's distancing herself from Trump "completely absurd."

Joe Mitchell, the Republican nominee in Iowa's 2nd District, called himself a "trusted voice in the MAGA movement" on his website earlier this summer and pledged to "always fight for the hard-working Iowans who have made their support for President Trump loud and clear," the Washington Post found. In the section explaining why he's running, Trump is no longer mentioned; Iowa now needs fighters who will "clean up Washington and put working families first." His campaign manager told the Post, "Websites are updated all the time." Trump endorsed him in a video on September 21 anyway.

Nick Begich, Alaska's congressman, removed a line from his website about working "along side President Trump" to deliver for Alaska, the Post reported. The Post's story carries no response from his campaign.

They all still want his voters. They just don't want his name on the front page.

They suddenly want his war to end

Since March, Congress has voted over and over on resolutions to pull U.S. forces out of the war with Iran. This week, days after diesel hit a record, five Republicans who had backed the war said it should end.

• Ashley Hinson, Iowa's Republican nominee for Senate, posted on Monday that "the war needs to be brought to a successful and immediate end." Six days earlier, she voted to keep it going.
• Mike Rogers (MI), Michigan's Senate nominee, filmed an ad in a grocery store saying the war "needs to end and end quickly." He isn't in Congress, but he had defended Trump's strategy in the Middle East before, the Washington Sun noted. His Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, responded that Rogers "is lying straight to our faces."
• Jon Husted, the Ohio senator, told Politico on Tuesday that "the war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices." In the same story, his spokesperson said Husted does not plan to support the war powers resolution coming up in the Senate this week. He has voted no on every one of them this year.
• John James, Michigan's nominee for governor, said on Tuesday the war "should end yesterday," MLive reported. He voted no on all six House resolutions to end it, the last one on September 15.
• Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin's nominee for governor, said it was time to "wrap up" the war. He voted no on the five he was present for, and said he did it because the "president has that authority." We covered James and Tiffany together.

Two Iowa House members went further and actually changed their votes. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks voted no on ending the war on July 23. On September 15, seven weeks before the election, they both voted yes. We wrote about that switch and the 180 members we track who still voted no.

Tiffany has been backing away from Trump on another front, too. In the January 6, 2021 joint session, he voted to object to counting Pennsylvania's and Arizona's electoral votes for Biden. This month he told Wisconsin Watch that Biden won — though in August, the outlet reported, he said he didn't regret voting against certifying the election.

They're backing away from his immigration crackdown

Two Republicans in heavily Hispanic districts that Trump won by double digits are now distancing themselves from his hardline immigration policies, as CNN put it.

Maria Elvira Salazar of Miami filmed an ad in front of the White House telling Trump that his immigration enforcement had gone "too far," and that some Hispanic voters "feel betrayed." We laid out what she voted for before she filmed it.

Monica De La Cruz of South Texas is running an ad about a man she helped get out of ICE detention, a DACA recipient. In it, his wife says "this immigration system is broken," The Hill reported.

The record they can't delete

Websites can be rewritten overnight. Votes can't.

Twelve of these 14 Republicans were in Congress for Trump's budget bill, the tax and spending law he signed last summer that put new work requirements on Medicaid. All twelve voted for it. And on June 9, 2026, every House member on this list voted for $70 billion more for ICE, a bill that passed by just two votes. Any one of them could have stopped it.

House votes are from the Clerk of the House: the final vote on Trump's budget bill on July 3, 2025, which passed 218–214, and the June 9, 2026 vote on the ICE bill. Husted's vote is from the Senate's July 1, 2025 roll call.

Even CNN's Blake noted how careful these breaks are: "Saying the Iran war needs to end isn't the same as saying it was a mistake." None of them has said it was.

What the record shows

In the past two months, 14 Republicans with report cards on this site have tried to put distance between themselves and Trump: Byron Donalds, Andy Barr, Young Kim, Joe Mitchell and Nick Begich by cutting his name from their websites; Ashley Hinson, Mike Rogers (MI), Jon Husted, John James and Tom Tiffany by saying his Iran war should end; Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks by switching their votes on the war; and Maria Elvira Salazar and Monica De La Cruz by criticizing his immigration crackdown. The 12 who were in Congress all voted for Trump's budget bill. Every House member among them voted for $70 billion more for ICE. Hinson, James, Tiffany and Husted voted against ending the war they now say should end, and Husted still plans to vote against the next resolution.

Sources

Analysis: The GOP stampede away from Trump is growing — CNN. Republican House candidates tone down Trump on their campaign websites — The Washington Post. GOP Candidates Find Creative New Ways to Distance Themselves From Trump — Talking Points Memo. Survival Over Loyalty: Why Republicans Are Breaking With Trump — The Washington Sun. Photo: Ashley Hinson, Mike Rogers (MI) and Byron Donalds, AP/Getty Images via CNN.