The two-week temporary ceasefire has done little to quell GOP fears about the war in Iran costing the party seats in November.
Republicans are relieved over Trump’s steps toward reconciliation in Iran — but they worry the measures are too little, too late to save them from a brutal midterm election cycle.
Behind the public celebration by many Republicans of the temporary two-week ceasefire announcement, longtime party operatives continue to warn of a bleak political reality as the cost-of-living concerns around the war including spiking gas prices that are likely to continue for weeks if not longer even if the fragile ceasefire holds.
A person close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly, put it bluntly.
“This war in Iran almost cements the fact that we lose the midterms in November — the Senate and House,” the person said.
Why would I vote “strategically”? I voted for who I wanted to win, as everyone should. And yep, my candidate lost to Trump too. I have never thought, nor said, any different. But I don’t go around blaming everyone else for my candidates loss, yet I see a lot of Democrats do that.
Ya know why your candidate lost? Not enough people voted for her. Know why my candidate lost? Not enough people voted for her.
Let me put it another way, using your logic: Should I blame you for my candidates loss, since you voted for Harris instead of my candidate? Should I say that Trump only won because of people like you not voting for my candidate?
Because that’s exactly what you are trying to do to me.
Because our (deeply flawed) voting system necessitates it to get good outcomes.
What you should be doing is pushing hard for your 3rd party of preference to run (and win) elections on the local and state level, not the presidency. You’d see far more actual, tangible change if you started getting those folks elected in smaller elections than just losing the presidential election with 2% of the votes every 4 years. Look at Zohran Mamdami - he’s doing a great job in NYC and actually doing a lot of positive things. If he’d run for president, do you think he’d have won? Not a chance in hell.
However, once candidates like that start doing good things at the local level, then they become more palatable candidates to elect to the House / Senate. And once we start getting Senators / House Reps from those parties, they become more palatable candidates on the national level.
There were exactly 2 candidates who had a chance of winning that election. You know that. Pretending otherwise is disingenuous. See the above for how to change that.
They do. My party has won local elections and state elections and hold office.
Dems and Repubs teamed up in 1987 to create the Commission on Presidential Debates. They set strict rules that have excluded virtually every third-party candidate from the national stage ever since.
It’s one of the rare things they publicly agree on: maintaining the two-party lock on the biggest platform in politics.
IMHO, if you vote for Dems, you support that. Harris voters and the non-voters, not voting for my candidate are why Trump won. You know that. Pretending otherwise is disingenuous.
Great! So the next step, then, would be to push those candidates into senate / house seats, while protecting the presidency from the candidates who are interested in a fascist takeover of the country and its voting process, because that isn’t going to help your candidates get elected anywhere.
We already do that. And we have 9 candidates running (or actively trying to run) for governor in the 2026 elections.
And I do my part to protect the presidency from bad people, by voting who I want to win. And during the last election it was 3rd party. Proud of my vote then, proud of my vote now.
And I’ll gladly vote 3rd party in future elections too. Harris voters and the non-voters not voting for my candidate are why Trump won.