'Extinction-level event,' 'blue tsunami': How Republicans eyeing 2028 are taking midterm losses

Following Republicans' poor midterm election performance -- which not only saw Democrats win back the House and the Senate, but also win Senate races in deep-red states -- several Republicans considering a 2028 presidential run have offered their evaluations of the party's performance in the midterm elections with all of them saying the GOP needs to find a way to move forward.

Sen. Ted Cruz: 'It was a Watergate-level repudiation'

Sen. Ted Cruz called Republicans' performance in the midterm elections a "Watergate-level repudiation" of the Republican Party.

"2026 was not simply a blue wave; it was a blue tsunami. It was an a---kicking. It was not simply a bad 2006 midterm election. It was a Watergate-level repudiation. What happened, and why? What are the consequences, and where on earth do we go from here?” Cruz said during his podcast out Wednesday.

He then turned to his state of Texas, where Republicans lost every statewide election, leaving Democrats in power.

"Texas is blue. That is a hard sentence to utter. But Texas, today at least, is blue. As we sit here today, I am the only statewide elected Republican who remains in Texas. That’s not something I ever thought I would say," Cruz said.

Cruz said that the dismissal of the rising cost of living led Republicans to be unsuccessful this election cycle.

"The top issue, cost of living, is very real. Too many in politics dismissed it. They didn't understand," Cruz said. "They pointed to the macro numbers showing the stock markets soaring, median income at record highs, and poverty at record lows. Those data are true, but they don’t tell all of the story."

Cruz said in his podcast that the Republican Party needs "to rebuild, getting behind policies that directly benefit the constituents we lost."

Cruz hasn't outright said he is pursuing the presidency, but the Texas Republican, who ran for president in 2016, told ABC News' Linsey Davis in September that he was focused on the midterms and that "there'll be plenty of time to worry about [2028] after the midterms."

Gov. Ron DeSantis: 'Close to an extinction-level event'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis described Tuesday's election results as a "meteor strike," arguing that even a "wave" fails to capture the scale of the Republican losses.

"To call it a wave, I don't think would be fully accurate. It's the political equivalent of a meteor strike that went all around the United States, blue states, red states, everything in between, and the one state that was able to hold the line and withstand that is right here in the free state of Florida,” DeSantis said Wednesday in Florida.

DeSantis did not mince his words about the election results for Republicans across the country, calling it a "close to an extinction-level event" for the party.

"But let's just be clear about what happened last night. This is close to an extinction-level event for Republicans in many parts of the country, as we have seen, probably in the last 100 years."

DeSantis said it will take time for the Republican Party to rebuild, but he offered Florida as an example of how the national party can start to move forward.

"Now it's going to take a lot of time and effort to rebuild. It will not happen in just one election cycle. But Florida shows how you can build a coalition, not only to convert on all your promises in good times, but also to withstand the bad times," he said.

During his Wednesday press conference, DeSantis was asked about seeking higher office in 2028 and responded that he's currently focused on the end of his term as governor and will discuss his future once he's out of office at the beginning of 2027.

"We'll talk about anything I'm doing on the other side of this. You know, I still got more work to do. We'll work till the lights are out and cross that bridge when we get to it," he said.

Vice President JD Vance: 'The reason we lost is the war'

In a lengthy social media post on Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance said his party lost because of the war in Iran, saying, "the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone."

"The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night," Vance said.

Although Vance said the war led Republicans to suffer losses, ABC News' Voter Poll of House voters found that voters nationally were more focused on other factors, including the cost of living, than the Iran war.

"If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest,” he added. "But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there."

President Donald Trump, though, has taken no responsibility for Republicans' poor performance in this year's election, maintaining that the party would have won if he were on the ballot.

"No, look. I mean, if I were on the ballot, we would have won. You saw the people that were packed, thousands and thousands of people at every rally, and if I was on the ballot, we would have won, but they just -- you couldn't transfer that love. There was such love at those rallies; it was incredible. We weren't able to transfer the love to candidates," Trump said on Wednesday.

Vance conceded that immigration enforcement may have played a role, saying he is "open" to changing it, but said that "establishment politicians" will be gaslighting voters into offering amnesty for migrants.

Vance told NBC News in an October interview that Republicans' showing in the midterms could impact his decision on whether to run for president in 2028.

"You make these decisions by collecting as much information and trying to make a wise decision. And yeah, I mean, regardless of what happens over the next 35 days, there will be new information, new things you have to make a decision over," Vance said at the time.