The House of Representatives has officially left Washington, D.C., for the final time before the midterms, canceling votes scheduled for Thursday to head home and campaign on their pathetic record of increasing healthcare costs, slashing taxes for the rich, and refusing to rein in President Donald Trump’s disastrous tariffs and war in Iran.

So why did they skip town so early?

Well, probably so they can avoid voting on articles of impeachment filed against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky filed eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth over his handling of the Iran war, accusing him of committing high crimes for ignoring the Constitution and waging war without congressional approval.

Massie also accused Hegseth of carrying out extrajudicial killings by bombing boats in the Caribbean Sea, suppressing free speech by retaliating against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona for urging troops not to follow illegal orders, and kidnapping former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

House rules say that the speaker has to put the articles of impeachment on the floor for a vote within two legislative days. That clearly terrifies Republicans, as it would force them to either defy Trump by impeaching his favorite warmonger or tacitly vote to support the wildly unpopular war in Iran.

Both of those are bad options for Republicans, who can’t afford to anger Trump ahead of the midterms. But voting against the impeachment would essentially be signing off on how he’s handled the Iran war.

So rather than putting Republicans in that position, House Speaker Mike Johnson called a recess to stop the clock on the two-day voting rule.

“I think it shows the cowardice of the Republican Party,” Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington said. “They are canceling votes to do business for the American people because they are afraid that that impeachment resolution of Pete Hegseth would pass on a bipartisan basis.”

She concluded, “The American people deserve better than Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump.”

Johnson had already canceled two weeks of votes that were scheduled through the end of September, saying that Republicans needed to get back to their districts to campaign. But campaigning for the next 48 days is unlikely to save them anyway.

Trump’s war in Iran and capitulation to Russia in its war against Ukraine have spiked oil prices, raising the cost of fuel across the globe. And that will have downstream inflationary impacts, as diesel—which is used to transport goods and power farming machinery—is at a record high.

Oil and gas experts say that prices are not going to come down in the near future, sounding the alarm on potential fuel shortages.

And it’s all happening just as voters tune in to the general election, with early voting having already started in a handful of states, with more set to come online in the coming days.

We’re already seeing voters’ frustration impacting polls, with Democrats surging on the generic ballot and leading in critical House and Senate races in regions that Trump carried by double digits in 2024.

Since September 1, Democrats’ lead on the generic ballot has grown by 1.1 points, with Marquette University Law School releasing a poll Wednesday that shows Democrats with a 13-point lead among likely voters. If it comes to fruition, that would be an extinction-level election for the GOP.

So House Republicans can go home to campaign all they want. But when they return, many of them will be losers.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos