President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance admitted that the war against Iran contributed to the Republican Party losing dozens of House and Senate seats to Democrats in the midterm elections. 

In an X post analyzing the Republican defeat, Vance said he spoke with an expert pollster who warned that Americans who voted for Trump in 2024 planned to vote for Democrats on Tuesday. “In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats,” the Vice President wrote. 

The pollster explained to Vance that the top four reasons leading Americans to abandon Republicans and support Democrats were “End the war, Focus on cost of living/inflation, Put America First, and Change our relationship to Israel.”

“Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats.” The post continued, “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.”

Vance appeared to be referencing a Trump interview Tuesday night where he told the Wall Street Journal that “Iran was a piece of it.” However, Trump still defended the decision to go to war with Iran, saying, “I did the right thing. I would have done it again.”

Democrats are expected to pick up nine seats in the Senate and as many as 50 in the House once Tuesday votes are counted. Following the Democrats’ election victories, oil prices dropped over 8% on Wednesday, to under $95 per barrel of Brent crude. 

An Iranian official said the election results reflect Americans’ opposition to the war. “Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message,” Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, posted on X. “If the US govt betrays their public will to serve international paymasters and blackmailers, it will learn our NO comes with a Nightmare.”