As the midterm votes trickled in on Tuesday and Democrats locked up majorities in both chambers of the United States Congress, Republicans began pointing fingers at the Trump administration’s increasingly unpopular foreign policies. Many, already appalled at US-funded Israeli genocide in Gaza and the occupation of southern Lebanon, also view the Trump administration as having been convinced to launch strikes on Iran on February 28 by Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu government, which insisted without evidence that Iran was “close” to developing a nuclear weapon. An unnamed pollster, Vance said, had asked voters who had switched parties for this election what would bring them back.
Summing up the causes for their displeasure with Trump’s government, they said they wanted an end to the war on Iran, action on the cost of living, a return to “America First” and a fundamental change in Washington’s relationship with Israel. All of it, voters say, went directly against Trump’s campaign promises to end the US involvement in foreign wars and to bring down the cost of living. About six in 10 voters surveyed by The said that going to war with Iran was the wrong decision.
Even more called the cost of living key to their decision about how to vote in the midterm elections. Meanwhile in Detroit, Michigan’s Democratic senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed had called for an end to US military assistance to Israel, a position that experts say echoed the “America First” message on which many Republicans had won previous midterm races. He won his contest despite a vigorous campaign by the Republicans, and funded by the deep-pocketed, pro-Israel AIPAC lobby group.
Although El-Sayed’s campaign focused primarily on healthcare and the cost of living, it may have been anger towards Israel that propelled the first Muslim into the US Senate. The two politicians sit at opposite ends of the political spectrum, but Vance’s diagnosis signals, at the very least, a rift in the Republican alliance with Netanyahu. Payne said he believes a broader Republican realignment remains unlikely at this stage.
But with Democrats winning so handily and criticism of Israel front and centre in some of their biggest swing-state upsets, he said that “the party could be emboldened to take an even tougher line moving forward.” “There are very few issues on which we’ll see such a stark partisan contrast, making it one of the most likely to cut through in the presidential campaign in 2028,” Payne said. On Wednesday night, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the major US pro-Israel lobby which raises funds in support of pro-Israel political candidates, claimed more than “234 candidates” supported by its members had won their seats. The group’s post on X congratulated Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the two Democratic leaders, as a swift reminder that it maintains support from both parties.
But the picture looks worse for AIPAC when measured by where its money went. A Responsible Statecraft report has found that AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project (UDP), and several other political committees spent $84.1m on races. Of that, $55.3m went on races where their preferred candidate lost.
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