Republican 2028 hopefuls midterm election losses, Digi Mart USA News: Republican hopefuls in the race to succeed Donald Trump swiftly blamed two key pillars of his agenda, the Iran war and tariffs, for the Democratic blue wave that swept the US midterm elections.
The fallout from the stunning Democratic success on Tuesday night has left Republicans reeling and searching for reasons behind the collapse in support. On Thursday, the Associated Press called more competitive House races for Democrats, though Senate races in Alaska and Mississippi remained undecided.
Vice President JD Vance, outgoing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Senator Ted Cruz all pointed to frustration over the cost of living amid Republican defeats across the country, including in previous strongholds such as Texas and Kansas. They also cited Trump’s prolonged war on Iran, his aggressive trade agenda, the US-Israel relationship, and Democratic ads that painted conservative candidates poorly.
Cruz, a former Republican presidential candidate who has not ruled out another run, said on his podcast, Verdict With Ted Cruz, on Wednesday: “Tariffs have made everything too expensive and the Iran war has dragged on too long. It should have been brief, decisive and over.
It needs to end.”
Vance wrote in a lengthy X post on Wednesday, “The reason we lost is the war,” 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, described this week’s elections as “close to an extinction-level event” for his party. He said Democrats made Republicans look bad with ads targeting them over the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and congressional stock trading.
DeSantis said Republicans had promised to publish the Epstein files, which include a vast array of documents and correspondence 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 as a result of the war with Iran.
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 promised to make life more affordable and to keep the president’s sprawling agenda in check, and won over voters. They 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, as several incumbent Republicans he vouched for in competitive House and Senate races still lost to Democrats.
Trump said he would accept the results of the midterms but quickly deflected, claiming Republicans would have won if his name had actually been on the ballot. On Thursday, he demanded 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.
Trump admitted 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 on Wednesday.
Some have suggested Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could take the fall for the administration’s conflict in Iran, but 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.”
