US midterms 2026 live: Vance blames Iran war for crushing Republican defeat
JD Vance has blamed Donald Trump’s war in Iran for Republicans’ midterm wipeout, as the US vice president’s long-held frustrations over the conflict spilt into the open.
“The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” Vance wrote in a lengthy post on X.
Trump said on Tuesday night that the war was partly to blame for the losses, but also that he did not regret starting it.
The elections delivered a historic blue wave as Democrats swept to victory in Republican strongholds across the country, with voters punishing the Trump administration for soaring gas prices stoked by the president’s war in Iran.
The steep losses have led to a debate within the Republican Party over the 2028 presidential race, which Vance is a favourite to join. “The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026,” he said.
The vice-president’s comments came as Senate races in Republican strongholds of Mississippi and Alaska were still too close to call on Wednesday, in a sign of the Democrats’ dominance.
In Mississippi, a traditionally deep-red southern state, the race was going down to the wire. Democrat Scott Colom led incumbent senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by just 43 votes with 96 per cent of the vote counted.
In Alaska, Democratic challenger Mary Peltola moved 626 votes ahead of Republican Dan Sullivan, with 74 per cent of the vote counted.
As the scale of the Republican defeat became clear, Trump admitted that voters’ anger over the Iran war helped power the Democrats to a stunning victory in the midterm elections.
“I think a part of it was Iran but at the same time people understood the importance of what I’ve done,” the president said, as the Democrats regained control of the House of Representatives and Senate.
Wall Street stocks climbed in early trading on Wednesday, as investors bet that the Democrats’ resounding victory could restrain White House policymaking that has stirred up global markets.
The S&P 500 rose 1.8 per cent in early trading, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was up 2.2 per cent as tech stocks shrugged off fears of a Democrat backlash against AI.
