U.S. midterm elections 2026 LIVE: Trump says 'largely true' Iran war caused election loss

U.S. Vice-President JD Vance said on Wednesday (November 4, 2026) that the Iran war was the reason Republicans lost the midterm elections, as he sought to distance himself from the conflict ahead of a possible 2028 White House run.

Democrats won full control of the U.S. Congress in a sweeping midterm rout on Tuesday (November 3, 2026) with a landslide of upsets that delivered a crushing rebuke of President Donald Trump and his Republican Party. The victory handed Democrats both the House of Representatives and Senate, giving them power to block Mr.

Trump’s agenda and investigate alleged corruption for the last two years of his presidency. The vote reflected deep anger over living costs, tariffs and Mr. Trump’s war against Iran, which has sent fuel prices soaring and compounded dissatisfaction with an already deeply unpopular President.

Mr. Trump struck a conciliatory note despite his history of questioning election results, telling The New York Times: “I am absolutely willing to accept those results” and promising to “work with the Democrats.” The Democratic architects of proposed bipartisan energy permitting legislation said on Wednesday they would not delay the bill in hopes of securing a better ‌deal next year when Democrats take control of both chambers of Congress.

The measure, known as ⁠the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, would overhaul federal permitting processes for energy and infrastructure projects and is expected to ‌be a major focus of Congress now that the midterm elections are over.

The bill ‌is the culmination of a years-long effort ‌to ⁠pass legislation aimed at speeding construction of transmission lines, ⁠mines, and both renewable and fossil fuel energy projects. “This is the closest we have come to actually finding something that can get signed into law, ‌and I’m not going to wait,” Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico said in a statement.

Former Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison said Democrats’ wins in Senate contests across the country were part of a payoff after a decade of building up party infrastructure in key states. As national party chair, Mr.

Harrison said he helped continue shoring up Democrats in GOP-held states, like Kansas, Iowa and his home state of South Carolina, something begun during Tom Perez’s leadership of the national party. That slow roll, Harrison said, helped solidify operations that yielded wins for Senate candidates across those states and others.

President Donald Trump said that he’s not considering replacing the Pete Defence Secretary Hegseth, despite voter dissatisfaction with the Iran war. U.S. defence shares fell on ‌Wednesday asthe Democrats’ resounding midterm election victory stoked concerns about increased pressure on the Pentagon’s spending plans.

The sector ⁠has benefited from President Donald Trump’s call for a $1.5 trillion U.S. military budget for 2027, well above the currently approved $901 billion level, ‌and the Iran war, which has fueled demand for missiles, air-defence systems and other weapons.

With Democrats set ‌to control Congress, investors bet future defence funding ‌may ⁠not be as robust as previously expected. Shares of ⁠Lockheed Martin, which oversees the biggest US weapons program, the F-35 fighter jet, fell 6.9%.

Missile and radar maker RTX declined 3.1%, and L3Harris Technologies sank 6.9%. General ‌Dynamics and Northrop Grumman also dropped. Canada’s push to reduce economic dependence on the United States will not change after President Donald Trump’s Republican Party suffered a crushing midterm election defeat, an official said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has maintained that trade with the United States, a cornerstone of the Canadian economy, will not return to a pre-Trump normal and that his country must urgently diversify its trading relationships.

U.S. Democratic Party leaders have been critical of Mr. Trump’s trade war with Canada and called for the reversal of sweeping tariffs that have impacted businesses on both sides of the border. But the Canadian Minister responsible for US-Canada trade, Dominic LeBlanc, stressed Wednesday that Ottawa’s focus on repositioning the economy “hasn’t changed.”