US vice president

on Wednesday (local time) attributed the Republicans' midterm election rout to supporters' dissatisfaction with the Trump administration, particularly over the Iran war, saying many Republican voters, therefore, backed Democratic candidates.

"There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up. So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? 'No,' he told me. 'We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guy'," Vance posted on X.

"Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026," he added.

Referring to a conversation with a pollster, whom he described as "one of the smartest persons I know in politics", Vance recalled being told that Republicans could lose the generic ballot by 13 points.

"I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats.

He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team," Vance said.

The vice president then listed the four main reasons another pollster cited for Republican voters "abandoning" the GOP: ending the Iran war, focusing on the cost of living and inflation, putting America first, and changing the US relationship with Israel.

"Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. … The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night. … But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there," he wrote.

Vance finished his post saying he remains "hopeful about our country, and urged dissatisfied voters to channel their anger into electing Republicans who share their views and called on the GOP to refocus its efforts on "saving our country."