JD Vance, Ted Cruz, Ron DeSantis Eye 2028 After GOP Midterm Rout
The race for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination is quietly underway. Days after a crushing midterm defeat, Vice President JD Vance, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are each offering their own explanations for what went wrong, and strategists say those messages are aimed squarely at the next presidential race.
Democrats won control of the House and flipped the Senate on Nov. 3, winning in reliably red states, including Texas, South Carolina and Kansas, and flipping House seats that President Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2024, USA Today reported.
Vance Blames the War in Iran
Vance posted a roughly 600-word postmortem on X on Wednesday morning, pointing to the war with Iran as the main reason for the losses. "The reason we lost is the war," he wrote. "Any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there."
Vance argued that the problem was not low Republican turnout but voters switching sides, writing that "many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026." He has led negotiations to end the war and urged Republicans to "take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country."
Trump called Vance's assessment "fine" and "good," and acknowledged the war and high gas and diesel prices hurt the party. "As far as that war is concerned, I would have done nothing different," he said, according to Fox News. Asked about Vance's 2028 plans, Trump said, "Maybe he won't run," adding, "we'll see what happens."
Cruz Calls It a "Blue Tsunami"
Cruz, who watched his home state elect Democrat James Talarico to the Senate, was blunt. "It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election. It was a Watergate-level repudiation," he wrote on X.
"Texas is blue. That is a hard sentence to utter," Cruz added, noting that Republicans lost every statewide race in Texas. He said Democrats won the national popular vote by 13 points, the largest midterm margin since 1976.
Cruz pointed to high costs, Trump's tariffs and the Iran war, which he said "should have been brief, decisive, and over." He also cited an "economic disconnect," with the very wealthy and data centers thriving while average Americans struggled with utility bills.
"Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high," Cruz wrote. He vowed to "rebuild as a true blue-collar party."
DeSantis Points to Florida
DeSantis, whose state was a rare bright spot for the GOP, called the results "close to an extinction-level event for Republicans across the country." Florida Republicans held both the governor's office, with Byron Donalds defeating David Jolly, and a U.S. Senate seat, with Ashley Moody beating Angie Nixon.
"We knew it could be worse. I don't think most of us thought it would be this bad," DeSantis said at a news conference, calling Florida "the one state that was able to hold the line." He also said Republicans were "fighting yesterday's battles" with ads focused on transgender issues.
DeSantis said he would address a possible 2028 run after his term as governor ends in January.
Strategists See 2028 Moves
Republican strategists say the dueling postmortems are about more than the midterms. "These are moves designed to look towards 2028," GOP strategist David Kochel said, warning that "it's going to be really hard to hold the coalition together."
GOP donor Dan Eberhart agreed that "the early moves have started." He described DeSantis' criticism of Trump's proposed $5,000 dividend as "the first bullet in 2028 contest."
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the defeat left the nomination race "wide open." A big Republican win, he said, would have given Vance a strong case as the inevitable nominee.
Who Else Could Run?
Vance and Cruz are widely expected to run, though neither has formally entered the race. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also seen as a possible contender but has not publicly commented on the midterm results. Cruz, meanwhile, is up for reelection to the Senate in 2030.
Formal announcements may not come until 2027, giving the party time to sort through the wreckage of the midterms before the 2028 primaries begin.
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