U.S. Vice President JD Vance pointed to the Trump administration’s decision to go to war against Iran and the U.S. relationship with Israel on Wednesday as among the main reasons that Republicans lost the 2026 midterms.
In a lengthy post on social media, the vice president described a conversation with a pollster who asked disaffected Republicans why they were voting for Democrats.
“The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses, were: end the war, focus on cost of living/inflation, put America first and change our relationship to Israel,” Vance wrote. “Our voters showed up, and the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats.”
U.S. President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday night that the war against Iran “was a piece of it” in an interview about the GOP rout that saw Democrats flip senate seats in Republican strongholds like Texas and Kansas.
Trump added that he “would have done it again” and did not regret starting the war.
Vance went further than Trump on Wednesday, while attributing the argument to the president.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” he wrote. “If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next six years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest.”
Exit polls suggest that U.S. foreign policy and the Iran war were key issues for voters on Tuesday, along with related issues like the cost of living. The conflict is deeply unpopular and has caused nationwide spikes in the prices of gasoline and diesel fuel, which have hammered the president’s approval rating on the economy.
Vance has described himself as having “realist” foreign policy views and has expressed skepticism about the nature of the U.S.-Israel relationship in the past.
He was also one of the lead negotiators in peace talks with Iran and sent a letter to the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council in October to restart negotiations, the Wall Street Journal reported.
With the 2026 midterms over, Vance’s assessment will likely play into intra-Republican debates about how to approach the 2028 presidential election, in which Vance will be one of the frontrunners if he should decide to run.
Vance’s criticism of “establishment politicians” while avoiding directly blaming the decision to go to war on the president or the administration, in which he serves, contrasts with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another potential 2028 Republican candidate whose state was one of the only bright spots for Republicans on Tuesday.
DeSantis laid the Iran war and voter dissatisfaction squarely on Trump in an interview with Stephen A. Smith on Monday.
“He obviously ran saying he wasn’t going to do a Middle East war, then he did,” DeSantis said.
