Republican hopefuls blame Iran war and tariffs for 2026 midterm losses

Democrats won both chambers and a majority of governor races

Republican figures in the race to succeed Donald Trump in 2028 moved quickly to explain the party’s defeats in the 2026 US midterms. Senator Ted Cruz, Vice President JD Vance and outgoing Florida governor Ron DeSantis pointed to the Iran war, tariffs and frustration over the cost of living as Republican defeats reached previous strongholds.

Democrats seized authority in both chambers of Congress and won a majority of the gubernatorial races around the country. Cruz, a former Republican presidential candidate who has not ruled out another run, was among the Republican hopefuls offering an explanation after the result. DeSantis, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the Republican nomination two years ago and has since endured a strained relationship with the president, also assessed the outcome.

Cruz said on his Verdict With Ted Cruz podcast on Wednesday: “Tariffs have made everything too expensive and the Iran war has dragged on too long.” He added, “It should have been brief, decisive and over. It needs to end.”

In a lengthy X post, Vance wrote: “The reason we lost is the war.” He suggested the party lost because voters were angry at the Trump administration for diverting focus away from Americans. Vance urged those upset with the results to channel their reaction: “To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be,” followed by, “Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.”

DeSantis called this week’s elections “close to an extinction-level event” for the Republican Party. He also said Democratic ads made Republicans look bad by targeting them over the case of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and congressional stock trading. The Guardian reported that the Epstein files included a vast array of documents and correspondences tied to the disgraced financier.

DeSantis said of the Epstein files: “We ran as Republicans on saying, ‘We need to do that,’” and “And then you actually have people in the Congress voting against release [of the Epstein files] when the attorney general said she had all this horrific stuff on her desk and that people were going to be held accountable.” He added: “It’s untenable when you have people going in, trading stock.”

Cruz, Vance and DeSantis also pointed to Trump’s prolonged war in Iran, aggressive trade agenda, the US-Israel relationship, and Democratic advertising that painted conservative candidates poorly. In the months and weeks before the election, polling showed voters increasingly disgruntled with Trump’s handling of his job.

Americans were feeling the squeeze of the US economy as gas prices and grocery costs rose, the Guardian reported, attributing the pressure to the ongoing war with Iran. Democrats promised to make life more affordable and keep the US president’s sprawling agenda in check, and they won over voters.

Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that the Iran war had pushed potential Republican voters away. “It’s largely true because it drove gasoline up a little bit,” he told reporters at the White House.

Cruz also blamed Republican politicians for ignoring warning signs. “Too many Republican politicians seem like they didn’t understand, and they didn’t care,” he said. “Food is too high. Gas is too high. Diesel is too high. Insurance is too high. Life is too high.”

Across their public comments, Cruz, Vance, DeSantis and Trump placed the Iran war and household costs at the center of the Republican explanation for the 2026 results. DeSantis also raised Democratic advertising about Epstein and congressional stock trading, while Cruz pointed to tariffs, the war’s length and cost-of-living warnings; the US-Israel relationship was another factor the Republican figures cited. Democrats ended the midterms with authority in both chambers of Congress and a majority of gubernatorial wins.