# Vance, Cruz and DeSantis Give Three Different Diagnoses of the GOP's Midterm Losses, and Fox News Says the 2028 Fight Has Started

Vance blames the Iran war, Cruz points to prices and calls it a 'blue tsunami,' and DeSantis calls it 'close to an extinction-level event' while praising Florida. Trump says he would change nothing about the war. Strategists tell Fox the moves are about 2028.

- Section: [Politics](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/politics/)
- Published: 2026-11-06
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/vance-cruz-desantis-diagnose-gop-midterm-losses-the-war-blue-tsunami-extinction-level-event-2028-kochel-eberhart-fox-news/

Three Republicans often named as 2028 contenders have each explained why the party lost so badly on Tuesday, and their answers do not match, Fox News reports.

Vance. The vice president wrote a post of about 600 words on X on Wednesday morning. "The reason we lost is the war," he wrote, and he said any honest talk about the way forward has to start there. Vance argued the loss came from voters leaving the party's 2024 coalition, not from weak GOP turnout. Strategist David Kochel told Fox it was the strongest line he had seen a vice president take, because it criticizes a policy and not just a tactic. Donald Trump Jr. replied that "every word of this" was right. Asked about it, President Trump said, "I know how he feels about it. I think it was fine." He also said he would do the war again: "I would have done nothing different." He did accept that high gas and diesel prices hurt the party.

Cruz. The Texas senator called the result a "blue tsunami" and "a Watergate-level repudiation," and wrote that "Texas is blue" after Republicans lost every statewide race there. He blamed the cost of living and pointed to the president's tariffs and the Iran war: "Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high."

DeSantis. At a Wednesday news conference the Florida governor called the night "close to an extinction-level event for Republicans across the country" that could echo for "the next decade or more." He said Florida was the one state that held the line.

The 2028 read. Kochel said the moves are "designed to look towards 2028." Republican donor Dan Eberhart said "the early moves have started," and that DeSantis's cool response in September to Trump's $5,000 dividend pledge was the first shot of the contest. Kochel warned that holding the coalition together will be hard without Trump's celebrity.

Why it matters here. Our earlier coverage of Vance's post is in the report on his blaming the war. What is new is that a second and third potential candidate have now answered, and only one of them pins it on the war. The split is mostly about the Iran war and prices, and Trump has said he stands by the war.

What we could not check. We relied on Fox's report and did not read the posts or watch the news conference. Quotes are as Fox gives them, and the Cruz and Vance excerpts include language Fox trimmed. We did not verify the Texas statewide result. Kochel and Eberhart are commentators, not campaign sources.

## Source

Original reporting: [Fox News](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/vance-cruz-desantis-diagnose-gop-midterm-disaster-battle-party-future-begins)