US Vice President JD Vance has blamed the war in Iran for the Republican Party's defeat in the congressional elections, infohub.kz reports.
The vice president posted his statement analyzing the congressional election results on his X social media account.
According to him, Republicans had watched their voters turn out in high numbers, but in the end it turned out the electorate had voted for the other party.
"Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, voter turnout was 9 points higher than the Democrats', only a couple of points worse than in 2024. There were certainly places where we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem isn't turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026," Vance said.
The politician described his conversation with a well-known pollster who argued that the Republicans' economic messaging was not clear enough in the final stretch. Vance added that he agreed with the expert.
"But the real reason for our defeat is obvious to almost everyone. Another pollster — one of the smartest people I know in politics — told me yesterday that we would lose the election overall by 13 points. I was pessimistic going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by that. In his polling, he (the pollster — Ed.) found that many voters who backed Trump in 2024 were angry and planned to vote for Democrats," Vance said.
Again citing the expert who spoke with voters, Vance said that Americans who had previously been loyal to Republicans set out four main demands for Trump's party: end the war with Iran; focus on the rising cost of living and inflation; put America's interests first; and change the relationship with Israel.
"There will be a lot of speculation over the next few months. Expect to hear from many establishment politicians that the solution to our problems is amnesty. I am open to ideas for changing our approach to enforcement — for example, paying more attention to businesses that hire illegal labor. But anyone who proposes amnesty is lying to you. The reason for our defeat is the war. The president himself said so last night. If you want to argue that it was worth it, that losing control of the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue that it was a justified price. Whether you agree or not, at least it's honest. But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here has to start with that," JD Vance said.