JD Vance: “The War In Iran Is The Reason Republicans Lost”

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Democrats have taken control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, carried by a blue wave that swept the country. In several Republican strongholds, the Senate seats that were up for grabs flipped in their favor.

Two years after the start of Donald Trump’s second term , Americans were called to the polls on Tuesday, November 3rd, in elections that felt like a referendum for or against Donald Trump. The Republican president himself had repeatedly asked his supporters to “act as if he were on the ballot.”

And a Democratic wave has emerged: according to the still partial but undeniably clear results, the Democrats have taken control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate, where Republicans held a relatively comfortable majority, has swung to the Democrats. Fifty-four seats are now in Democratic hands, compared to 44 for the Republicans. In the House of Representatives, where Republicans held a majority, all 435 seats were up for election. According to the latest results, the Democrats have won 228 seats, while the Republicans have 139.

Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance both blamed the party’s heavy losses in the midterm elections on the war in Iran.

Key information to remember

⇒ Jean-Noël Barrot hails this as “excellent news for American democracy”

⇒ According to JD Vance, the war in Iran is “the reason” the Republican party lost

⇒ Donald Trump claims that the war against Iran was worth it despite electoral defeats

For Chuck Schumer, the priority now is to lower the cost of living

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader since 2017, stressed that the priority for his party, which has regained a majority in Congress, was to lower the cost of living for Americans, while also mentioning an end to the war against Iran and the opening of a corruption investigation against the Trump administration.

“The first thing we’re going to do is reduce costs for people and move the legislative process forward in that direction,” he said at a press conference. “We’re going to end the war. Some Republicans have already joined us in making that happen. And the Founding Fathers foresaw the power to control the purse strings as one of the ways to deter a president from waging war without the consent of the American people,” Chuck Schumer continued.

“The corruption (of the Trump administration) was so endemic that an investigation is necessary but the priority is to reduce costs (for Americans),” adds the man who will likely be elected to lead the new Democratic majority in the Senate.

Donald Trump claims the war against Iran was worth it despite electoral defeats.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the war against Iran was worth it, while acknowledging its role in the defeats suffered in the US midterm elections, in which his Republicans lost control of Congress.

“We had to act regarding Iran, and we continue to do so,” he told reporters.

According to JD Vance, the Iran war is “the reason” the Republican party lost

US Vice President JD Vance, a potential candidate for the 2028 presidential nomination should he decide to run, posted a lengthy message on X in which he wrote that “the reason” for the Republicans’ “defeat” is “the war.” “The president himself acknowledged this last night,” he wrote.

Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday night that the war in Iran had played a role in the Republicans’ defeats in the midterm elections.According to JD Vance, the Iran war is “the reason” the Republican party lost

Donald Trump acknowledged Tuesday night that the war in Iran had played a role in the Republicans’ defeats in the midterm elections.

One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up. So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we’re going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us." Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026. There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true. But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone. Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were: 1) End the war 2) Focus on cost of living/inflation 3) Put America First 4) Change our relationship to Israel Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.) In the next few months, there’s going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I’m open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you. The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there. I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) November 4, 2026

“Trump is still your president,” the White House responded.

After the Republicans’ defeat in the midterm elections, the White House reacted on X by posting a photo of the American president with this message: “PSA: Trump is still your president” [Editor’s note: “Public service announcement: Trump is still your president”].