A screenshotted excerpt of an article under a POLITICO logo. Text: “Our voters did show up,” Vance wrote. “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.” Vance pointed to four answers an unnamed trusted pollster gave him about what voters said would win their votes back: ending the war, focusing on cost of living, putting “America First” and changing the U.S. relationship to Israel. Vance — who was initially one of the least supportive members of the administration on the war in Iran but ultimately took on a public-facing role in negotiating failed peace deals over the summer — said that people might continue to argue about whether the war was a worthwhile price to pay for “losing the Senate for the next 6 years” but that they should start from acknowledging it was, in fact, the reason. “Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest,” he wrote, “But evervone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.”