Republicans hoping to succeed Trump in 2028 dissect midterm rout

JD Vance, Ron DeSantis and Ted Cruz all pointed to Iran war and affordability as key factors in Democratic victory

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Republican hopefuls in the race to succeed Donald Trump swiftly blamed two key pillars of his agenda – the Iran war and tariffs – for summoning the Democratic blue wave that swept the US midterm elections.

The fallout from the stunning success of Democrats on Tuesday night has left Republicans reeling – and grasping for the reasons behind the collapse in support. On Thursday, the Associated Press called more competitive House races for the Democrats, though Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi remained undecided.

Vice-president JD Vance, the outgoing Florida governor Ron DeSantis, and Texas senator Ted Cruz all pointed to frustration over cost of living amid the fallout from Republican defeats across the country, including in previous strongholds such as Texas and Kansas.

They cited factors including Trump’s prolonged war on Iran and aggressive trade agenda; the US-Israel relationship; and Democratic ads that painted conservative candidates poorly.

“Tariffs have made everything too expensive and the Iran war has dragged on too long,” Cruz, a former Republican presidential candidate who has not ruled out another run, said on his podcast, Verdict With Ted Cruz, on Wednesday. “It should have been brief, decisive and over. It needs to end.”

“The reason we lost is the war,” Vance wrote in a lengthy X post on Wednesday, suggesting his party lost because voters are angry at the Trump administration for diverting focus away from Americans.

“To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be,” the vice-president added. “Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.”

DeSantis, who unsuccessfully challenged Trump for the Republican nomination two years ago and has since endured a strained relationship with the president, declared this week’s elections to be “close to an extinction-level event” for their party.

Democrats made Republicans look bad with ads targeting them over the case of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and congressional stock trading, DeSantis said on Wednesday.

DeSantis said Republicans had promised they would publish the Epstein files, which included a vast array of documents and correspondences tied to the disgraced financier. He said: “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.”

In the months and weeks leading up to the midterms, polling showed voters were increasingly disgruntled with Trump’s handling of his job. Americans were feeling the squeeze of the US economy with gas prices and grocery costs rising – a result of the war with Iran.

Yet Trump remained confident voters would stay loyal to him, encouraging them to vote as though he were on the ballot and campaigning for Republicans in competitive seats.

Democrats, meanwhile, promised to make life more affordable and keep the US president’s sprawling agenda in check – and won over voters. Democrats have seized authority in both chambers of Congress and won a majority of the gubernatorial races around the country.

Tuesday’s results indicate that Trump’s endorsements no longer carry the same power they once did. Several incumbent Republicans that he vouched for in competitive House and Senate races still lost to Democrats.

Though Trump said he would accept the results of the midterms, he quickly deflected, claiming Republicans would have won if his name had actually been on the ballot.

On Thursday, the US president went further, demanding that any votes for Dan J Sullivan, an alternative Republican Senate candidate in Alaska, should go to the incumbent Dan S Sullivan, whom Trump endorsed.

“The vote totals for the Fake Dan Sullivan, plus the other “slug” that the Dems put on the Ballot, should be immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over - He easily wins. There is no other fair solution!” Trump wrote.

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

Some have suggested Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, could take the fall for the administration’s conflict in Iran. However, when asked whether he was considering firing Hegseth, Trump insisted Hegseth was still doing “a very good job”.

Cruz blamed Republican politicians for ignoring the 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.”