JD Vance Blames Iran War as DeSantis and Cruz Challenge 2028 GOP Primary Bid

Midterm defeat reshapes 2028

Vice President JD Vance blamed the midterm shellacking on the war in Iran, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the rebuke was “as close to an extinction-level event for Republicans in many parts of the country as we have seen probably in the last 100 years.”

Ted Cruz said an “economic disconnect” also led to sweeping Republican losses, and USA Today tied the critiques to a race for the 2028 Republican primary to replace Donald Trump.

Vance argued in a Nov. 4 postmortem analysis on X that “many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026,” while The Hill described Vance facing criticism for blaming the losses on the Iran war and other big-name Republicans.

The GOP’s devastating midterm losses created “a huge opening for GOP White House hopefuls,” including DeSantis and Cruz, to go against Vance.

Vance said, “The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night,” referencing Trump telling Fox News “a part of” the midterm collapse was because of Iran.

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Rivals test Vance’s lane

The Hill reported that Republicans raised questions about whether a candidate not directly tied to the administration would be stronger, and it quoted one top GOP operative saying the election was “a referendum on the job they are doing.” Kevin Madden told The Hill that “Vance is now in the position of serving as a loyal vice president to a lame-duck president whose approval rating is in the 30’s,” and he framed the losses as particularly tough for Vance’s 2028 prospects. DeSantis boasted that his state was the only GOP stronghold to survive the blue tsunami, and it quoted DeSantis saying, “Let’s be clear about what happened last night.”

Cruz framed the outcome as historic in a lengthy analysis on social media, and USA Today quoted Cruz saying, “2026 was not simply a blue wave; it was a blue tsunami.” The Jerusalem Post reported that Newt Gingrich wrote on X that “If the administration had won a big victory, Vice President JD Vance would have had the perfect argument for why he should be the nominee,” and it said Gingrich then listed potential rivals including Marco Rubio and DeSantis.

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Foreign policy and party stakes

Vance tailored his messaging to what it called the “New Right,” including growing calls to reassess the nature of the US relationship with Israel and the extent of its commitment to traditional allies.

Vance took on a leading role in negotiations to end the war, and it quoted Vance saying, “And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”

Cruz argued that the war in Iran “has dragged on too long” and “should have been brief, decisive, and over,” and USA Today quoted Cruz saying “Food is too high. Gas is too high. Diesel is too high. Insurance is too high. Life is too high.”

DeSantis told CNN that “On January 5, I will be a private citizen,” and it described DeSantis portraying Florida as the exception that “hold the line and withstand that.”

Trump told reporters, “Maybe he won’t run,” and it added that Trump said, “I don’t know who’s going to run,” while also saying, “as far as that war’s concerned, I would have done nothing different.”

Reporting for this sectionThe Jerusalem PostUSA Today