Key facts
- Pence said on Meet the Press that Vance was wrong to blame the Iran war for Republican midterm losses.
- Vance's November 4 statement cited anger over the Iran war, cost of living and inflation as reasons voters turned to Democrats.
- Pence said the US military stopped after five weeks despite what he called a brilliant response in Operation Epic Fury.
- A Council on Foreign Relations analysis calculated Democrats picked up 44 House seats and flipped eight Senate seats.
Former Vice President Mike Pence said on November 15 that Vice President JD Vance was wrong to blame the Iran war for the Republican Party's losses in the midterm elections, in which the party lost control of both chambers of Congress. Speaking on NBC News's Meet the Press, Pence called Vance a good man but said his explanation was wrong.
Vance said in a statement on November 4 that many people who voted for Trump and Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026 because of anger over the Iran war, the cost of living and inflation, rather than a focus on putting America first and the US relationship with Israel.
Pence said voters were turned off because the US military stopped after five weeks of what he called a brilliant response in Operation Epic Fury and the strike against Iran last year. He said Iran was still firing on US targets in Bahrain in the 24 hours before his remarks, and that Americans were frustrated the military stopped short.
The Council on Foreign Relations released an analysis the week before the report that calculated Democrats picked up 44 House seats and held their largest margin over Republicans since the 1990 midterms. In the Senate, Democrats flipped eight seats, with the Alaska race yet to be called, tied for third for the biggest net seat gain in any midterm since 1942.
The conflict with Iran has lasted more than eight months. President Trump told reporters at a White House briefing the week before the report that the conflict was effectively over, then said on Veterans Day that the question was when to end it and that there must be a total victory. The war's costs totaled an estimated $47.1 billion in October, according to the report, since it began on February 28.