Johnson Steps Back, Vance Points to Iran: Republicans Start Picking Up the Pieces

The Republican rebuild began within hours of the results. House Speaker Mike Johnson told staff on Wednesday morning that he will not run for minority leader when Democrats take the House in January, opening a leadership contest that will define the party’s posture for the next two years — fighter or negotiator, or somehow both.

Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, gave the losses a single cause: the war in Iran. The conflict, launched eight months ago in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike, drove fuel prices up across the country and was deeply unpopular with voters by election day. President Trump, in a Fox News interview, accepted the election outcome, congratulated Democrats, and acknowledged the war had played a part — while saying he did not regret launching it.

Attention is already turning to 2028. Trump is constitutionally barred from a third term, which means the contest to lead the post-Trump Republican Party is now, effectively, underway — with Vance the most visible figure in it, and this defeat the first entry on his record.

The conservative take: A leadership race is healthy if it’s about ideas — what the party is for on costs, borders and war — and unhealthy if it’s only about personalities. Hold every candidate to that test.

Sources: USA Today’s live coverage