Progressive candidates challenging Democratic members of Congress in primaries are increasingly making foreign policy a central theme of their campaigns in the wake of President Donald Trump s killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani .

At least five House challengers and one progressive running in a competitive primary for an open Senate seat have used the assassination and the questions its raised about Congress power to authorize war and the United States role in the world to distinguish themselves from their more moderate Democratic opponents.

The accusation that sitting Democratic lawmakers have provided insufficient oversight of Trumps foreign policy has become significant in immigration attorney Jessica Cisneros run against Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar; former middle school principal Jamaal Bowman s run against House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel of New York; law professor Suraj Patel s rematch against Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York; Holyoke, Massachusetts, Mayor Alex Morse s effort to unseat House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal of Massachusetts; and nonprofit executive Melanie DArrigo s run against Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi.

Kentucky state Rep. Charles Booker, a long-shot candidate for the Democratic Senate nomination in the Bluegrass State, has also sought to distinguish himself from military veteran and establishment favorite Amy McGrath with a firmer stance against Trumps intervention.

Waleed Shahid, a spokesperson for the left-wing group Justice Democrats , which is backing three out of the five primary challengers, sees Democrats foreign policy stances as a potentially fruitful campaign topic.

On the presidential level and on the congressional level, there is a real fight on the direction of the Democratic Party on foreign policy, especially in the Trump era, Shahid said. Trump is being impeached for manipulating foreign policy to benefit himself. So theres a lot of energy in the Democratic electorate to hold him more accountable.