US Vice President JD Vance has said the war with Iran was the main reason Republicans lost the 2026 midterm elections, arguing that many people who voted for President Donald Trump and himself in 2024 backed Democrats this time.

In a lengthy post on X on Wednesday, November 4, his first major public assessment of the election results, Vance said low voter turnout was not responsible for the party's defeat.

"The reason we lost is the war," he wrote, adding that the president had made a similar assessment on election night.

Vance argued that Republican voters did turn out in Florida, where the electorate was nine percentage points more Republican than Democratic, only slightly below the party's margin in the 2024 election.

He said a pollster whose figures accurately reflected the election results had identified four major reasons former Trump supporters were leaving the Republican Party: ending the war, the rising cost of living and inflation, putting America First, and changing the United States' relationship with Israel.

Vance acknowledged that the party's economic message might not have been sufficiently clear in the final weeks of the campaign but maintained that the war was the central issue behind the losses.

He also defended Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy, who had called for a diplomatic end to the conflict and faced criticism from some Republicans before the election. Vance described her advice as "sound".

The vice president rejected suggestions by some party figures that immigration policy, particularly the question of amnesty, was responsible for the Republican losses. However, he said he was open to tougher enforcement measures against businesses that employ undocumented workers.

Vance challenged Republicans who believe the war was worth the political cost to state their position openly, even if it meant losing control of the Senate for six years.

Democrats have taken control of both chambers of Congress following the midterm elections, dealing a major political setback to Trump's administration.

Trump acknowledged on Tuesday, November 3, that the war had played a part in the Republican losses but maintained that Americans understood the importance of his decision to confront Iran.

On Wednesday, he described Vance's assessment as "largely true", while insisting that he would have made the same decision and would bring the war to an end "whenever I want it to".

The war began in late February 2026, when the United States and Israel launched military strikes against Iran. The conflict has continued for more than eight months, contributing to rising petrol prices and mounting pressure on the Trump administration.

The US Defence Department has reported 23 American service members killed and 866 wounded in the conflict.

Reactions to the election outcome and Vance's comments also came from the Middle East. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said his country had great respect for both the US president and vice president, while Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dismissed hopes that the Republican losses would lead to a change in American policy towards Iran, describing such expectations as "seriously mistaken".