WASHINGTON — Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., didn’t mince his words when asked what happened to Republicans in the midterm elections.
“We forgot that these people are suffering and they’re voting,” said Justice, a former governor who is in his first term in the Senate. “We were handed our ever-loving butts. »
But when asked whether President Donald Trump made mistakes that fueled his resounding defeat — such as starting the unpopular war in Iran and imposing tariffs that drove up costs — Justice demurred.
“Look, everything plays a role in the whole deal,” he said, without blaming Trump.
He said Trump received advice on Iran and dealt with the situation “the best he could.”
The remarks capture the Republican zeitgeist at the Capitol after the party suffered one of its biggest electoral disasters of the century, losing more than 40 House seats and at least seven Senate seats, some in deep red territory. The results and exit polls tell a clear story: A country that elected Trump in 2024 to lower the cost of living has deemed him a failure on that fundamental promise, accusing his policies of making things worse and punishing Republicans from coast to coast.
But even as they say they want a change of course, shocked Republican lawmakers are deeply reluctant to blame Trump, much less use their power on Capitol Hill to change his policies that have driven up the prices of gasoline, diesel and food.
Early responses indicate that Republicans on Capitol Hill — at least those who survived the election — will remain loyal to Trump as he enters his final two years. This was epitomized by the House Republican Party’s decision to elect an ultraconservative Trump ally, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, as its new minority leader.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said the 2026 campaign was “an economic election” and downplayed the war in Iran as a reason for the results.
“I don’t think Republicans lost every election in Texas because voters thought U.S. foreign policy was too interventionist,” he said.
Kennedy said it was important for Republicans to talk to each other and find “consensus on what we need to change” to right the ship. “I’m not looking to shift blame. I’m looking to examine my conscience,” he added.
Should Trump also examine his conscience?
“I have no advice to give the president today,” Kennedy said.
Rep. Gabe Evans, Republican of Colorado, who was defeated by 15 percentage points in a district he narrowly won two years ago, would not say whether the war on Iran and Trump’s tariffs have hurt his prospects.
“We’re still looking at all the data, so I’ll have to get back to you,” Evans said Wednesday.
National exit polls from NBC News showed that 74% of voters ranked the war in Iran as “crucial” or “a major factor” in their decision to vote for Congress this year. Sixty-four percent said Trump’s tariffs had hurt their region’s economy.
Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, whose eastern Colorado red district was supposed to be safe, is behind by more than 3,000 votes with 98% of the vote expected in a race that NBC News has yet to call. She hedged when asked whether Trump’s war or tariffs were fueling the blue environment and endangering conservative districts like hers.
“There are so many…It’s not just the president,” Boebert said. “We have failed collectively. (…) It is very clear. The American people have let us know that we have failed in this experiment in government.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Republicans lost because they failed to deliver on key conservative promises and overreached their 2024 term in a way that hurt the American working class.
He identified various reasons for the electoral defeat. Trump was not accepted.
“As a Congress, when you choose to defund Planned Parenthood but defund Medicaid, when you choose to defund transgender surgeries for minors but cut rural health care spending, when you abandon pro-lifers, when you abandon the poor, when you abandon the needy, when you abandon working people, you are going to get your butt kicked and you deserve it,” Hawley said. “I think that’s where we are.”
However, one Republican has directly argued that the Trump White House misinterpreted the meaning of the 2024 election: Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina.
“It was just a classic example where the administration interpreted it as a mandate. They got ahead of their blockers. They didn’t consult Congress. We went too far,” Tillis said, adding that some of the administration’s policies made sense but that “the time, the speed” and the messaging “just made it untenable.”
Tillis argued that the GOP should go back to basics with a version of the party that would have broader appeal.
“You look back and ask yourself, ‘Are we going back to a party that created a pretty significant reach, and how can we build on that from there?’ “, he said. “Let’s return to our ideological roots.”
Tillis announced in June 2025 that he would retire after a clash with Trump. The Trump-backed candidate for his seat, Michael Whatley, lost by 19 points.
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