(The Center Square) – At the time the 119th Congress kicked off in January 2025, a total of 100 military veterans were included as elected officials between both chambers. According to the Military Times, this was the largest number of military veterans serving in Congress in eight years.
While that number has slightly shifted as of April 2026, the five members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation who are military veterans and were sworn in at the beginning of the term are still in office.
As the U.S. War with Iran entered its sixth week, these five members have voiced their thoughts on the conflict. The three Republican military veterans serving in the state’s congressional delegation back President Donald Trump’s actions, while the two Democrats have opposed them.
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, R-Pa.
McCormick, who served in the 82nd Airborne Division during the Gulf War, issued words of support for the military action shortly after Operation Epic Fury.
“For decades, the Iranian regime has killed Americans, threatened Israel and our allies in the region with their ballistic missiles and nuclear ambitions, and butchered tens of thousands of its own people. They are the world’s number one sponsor of terror,” McCormick wrote in a Facebook post on Feb. 28. “The president has given the ayatollahs a chance for a deal, and they have rejected a path to peace and prosperity. I am praying for our brave troops and our steadfast allies who stand with us during this challenging and noble mission.”
On Friday, McCormick said he still “100%” supported the Trump administration’s actions in the war.
McCormick’s comments came just hours before Vice President J.D. Vance set off to the Middle East for failed negotiations aimed at ending the United States War with Iran. Leading into that meeting, Trump warned that he’d renew and intensify U.S. strikes if a peace deal can’t be reached, according to CNN, as Pakistan’s prime minister described the weekend of negotiations as a “make-or-break moment.”
“We’re now at another inflection point,” McCormick said on Friday.
“We should not trust the Iranians,” he continued.
The Iranians, McCormick said, have “deceived us every step of the way,” and referenced Iran launching missiles at Diego Garcia in March as an example.
“So, we should be skeptical,” McCormick said on Friday. “If there can be a negotiated arrangement where they turn over their rich uranium, say they’re not going to have a nuclear program, and stand down and let the people or Iran prosper, that’d be a great outcome.”
“If they don’t do that, then we have to finish the mission,” he continued. “And I say that as someone who absolutely has no taste for an extended stay in Iran.”
McCormick said that he believes that the U.S. “can’t put large forces on the ground,” but said that “we’ve got to accomplish” the mission.
“I applaud the president,” McCormick said. “It’s tough to do these hard things, now we’ve got to finish the job and get our young men and women home.”
On April 1, McCormick told The Center Square that “some limited ground troops” should remain an option for the war with Iran.
Since the beginning of the conflict and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, gas prices have skyrocketed significantly in Pennsylvania and across the country.
“Gas prices have gone up by a buck a gallon and that is not gonna work for very long for most families in Pennsylvania,” McCormick said. “And so, we have to get that wrapped up and get our energy prices back to where they need to be.”
McCormick said that if a peaceful negotiation to reopen the strait is not successful, there would be a need to “use our military capability” to open it, and the U.S. would have “lots of allies that’ll help us do that.”
“I’m in regular contact with the Gulf countries,” McCormick said on Friday. “There’s going to be a lot of support if we can’t get through this peaceful negotiation to get the strait open.”
McCormick acknowledged that it would not be easy to accomplish this mission, but the way to get gas prices lowered would require the Strait being open.
“The only way we’re going to get the energy markets back to normal is to finish the job,” he said. “And the sooner we finish it, the sooner we get on with worrying about other things.”
McCormick said that he talked with Trump and that the president has “absolutely no taste for a quagmire, no taste for a long-term commitment and he wants to get the job done.”
ABC27 reported on April 12 that McCormick said that he was not going to “call balls and strikes” on Trump’s style of communication in response to a question about the president’s threat to Iran that a “whole civilization will die” unless “something revolutionarily wonderful” occurred.
U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-6th District
Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, issued her latest statement on Monday afternoon.
“We started the war with Iran. Then we failed to negotiate the peace. Now we are blockading the Strait of Hormuz, an empty political gesture that puts our sailors in much greater danger,” she wrote on social media. “We are not safe under this administration, and my Republican colleagues need to take a stand against this ill-conceived war strategy.”
Throughout the conflict, she has consistently spoken out against this and Trump’s escalating rhetoric.
When Trump threatened to eliminate the “whole civilization” of Iran unless they agreed to his demands on April 7, Houlahan described it as the “epitome of an illegal order.”
“The world watched yesterday as President Trump threatened to eliminate an entire civilization,” Houlahan wrote on X on April 8. “America does not threaten civilians, not to accelerate a peace deal or for any reason at all.”
On March 6, Houlahan and over two dozen of her colleagues sent a letter requesting U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General Platte B. Moring III “open an investigation into reports that servicemembers have lodged anonymous complaints about military commanders invoking religious prophecy and apocalyptic theology to justify the United States’ military actions in Iran.”
“At a time when billions of dollars and untold numbers of lives hang in the balance while the Trump administration wages a war of choice in Iran, the imperative of maintaining strict separation of church and state and protecting the religious freedom of our troops is especially critical. We must ensure that military operations are guided by facts and the law, not end-times prophecy and extreme religious beliefs,” the lawmakers wrote.
U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-10th District
Perry, a combat veteran and former brigadier general in the Army National Guard, took to social media at the beginning of the conflict to express his support.
“TO THE PEOPLE OF IRAN: The hour of your freedom has arrived. Your destiny is in your hands. TAKE BACK YOUR GOVERNMENT, AND RETURN PERSIA,” Perry said at the beginning of a lengthy statement on social media on Feb. 28.
During a speech at a conservative conference on Friday, he reiterated his position.
“What we should be doing is thanking the President of the United States of America for ending the murdering and maiming of thousands upon thousands of American citizens by Iran,” said Perry. “Look at the death count. Look at the casualty count that Iran is responsible for.”
“I guarantee you, Iran is going to back down,” he continued. “It’s going to happen, and we’re no longer going to live under the threat of nuclear war.”
U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-17th District
Deluzio, a Navy veteran, has been outspoken in his criticism of the war since Feb. 28.
“Once again, an American President is sending brave Americans to fight and bleed in a Middle East regime change war. Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is ordering other people’s kids to risk their lives in an unauthorized war the Congress and the American people have not approved,” Deluzio wrote on social media. “Congress should reconvene immediately and put an end to this before the region is further destabilized and precious American lives are lost. To every hawk cheerleading this war—answer a simple question: how many American troops should die for this?”
On April 7, following Trump’s social media post threatening that “a whole civilization will die,” Deluzio called for Congress to act.
“Donald Trump’s abuse of power and threats of a war crime and the destruction of the Iranian people merit the President’s removal from office,” he said. “Congress should return to Washington at once to put a stop to this and bring our troops home.”
In an interview with CNN last week, Deluzio said that Democrats would investigate possible military mistakes in Iran.
U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-14th District
Reschenthaler, a Navy veteran, said in a statement on March 1 that he “strongly” supported Trump and “our nation’s warfighters as they carry out combat operations against the Iranian regime.”
“This joint effort with Israel is essential to safeguarding American lives at home and abroad,” he wrote. “Ayatollah Khamenei was a brutal dictator responsible for the death of thousands of innocent lives and I applaud his removal.”
“Since 1979, Iran has waged war against the United States. I witnessed this firsthand when I deployed to Iraq and prosecuted Iranian-backed militia groups that targeted and killed American troops during the War on Terror,” he continued. “Today, the regime’s nuclear ambitions, expanding ballistic missile program, and continued sponsorship of terrorism pose a direct threat to the United States and our allies. May God bless our fallen and injured heroes, their families, and all those deployed overseas.”
Reschenthaler hasn’t issued any public statements on his official office’s website or social media since that March 1 post and he did not respond to a request for comment from KDKA on April 7 following Trump saying that “a whole civilization will die.”
What Americans think of the War
The Military Times reported that as of April 8, since the start of Operation Epic Fury against Iran, 13 U.S. service members have been killed and 381 have been wounded, while The New York Times reported on March 29, that over 50,000 American troops were in the Middle East, which is roughly 10,000 more than usual.
Polling shows that most Americans oppose the U.S war with Iran. A recent Economist/YouGov Poll showed that 34% of Americans strongly or somewhat support the war, and 53% oppose it, adding that “almost all Democrats oppose the war (9% support it and 84% oppose it), as do a majority of Independents (24% vs. 57%), but most Republicans support it (67% vs. 21%).”
