Five weeks before Election Day, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard published an open letter telling Americans their administration “must be changed.” The polling that already existed, and the numbers that came in on Election Day, show where voters already stood on the war.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard released its open letter on Sept. 29. Roughly 26 pages long, it told Americans to “wake up” and act against their own leadership. The letter stated that the Trump administration “must be changed.” It landed in the middle of a war that began on Feb. 28.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung dismissed the letter as a “farcical and laughable attempt” by people who “resort to telling the American people to ‘vote Democrat.’” WECU’s Oct. 1 report pointed out that the letter never named a party. The State Department called it a “smokescreen.”
Voters had already rejected the war
Americans were not split on the decision to fight. A mid-September Fox News survey found that more than 60% called the military action against Iran the wrong decision. Seventy-one percent said the administration had no clear strategy for ending it. An April PBS News/NPR/Marist poll showed that 60% of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of Iran, including 22% of Republicans.
Those numbers were already on the table before the Guard published anything.
On Election Day the AP Voter Poll, which surveyed about 80,000 voters, found that roughly half called government corruption and the cost of living crucial to their vote for Congress, a higher share than said the same about the war in Iran. About 4 in 10 said the economy was the most important issue. Few named foreign policy.
The same poll showed that about 4 in 10 voters wanted to express opposition to Trump with their ballot, while just under 2 in 10 wanted to express support.
Tehran endorsed the message. Trump said Iran “was a piece of it.”
After projections showed Democrats taking both chambers, Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted on X that “Conscience or the cost of living, Americans said NO TO WAR, and we endorse this message.” He added that if the U.S. government betrays that public will, “our NO comes with a Nightmare.” An account associated with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said “the process of the US’s collapse has accelerated.”
Asked by the Wall Street Journal whether the war contributed to Republican losses, Trump told interviewers that “Iran was a piece of it,” according to CNBC’s account. He added, “I don’t think about it. I did the right thing. I would have done it again.”
What the numbers do and do not prove
No poll cited here asked voters about the Guard’s letter. The Fox survey that found more than 60% already calling the war the wrong decision was conducted in mid-September, before the letter existed. Opposition to the war was measurable on its own.
The letter’s claims of an Iranian victory and its casualty figures are the Guard’s own and remain unverified. Tehran’s statements arrived only after the results were projected. They say nothing about whether the letter reached voters or moved any ballots. That is not something the available polling measures.
What the numbers do show is a war that most voters had already rejected, and an election in which about half of voters ranked corruption and the cost of living as crucial, more than said the same about the war. Trump himself said the war was part of the result.
The fight now shifts to Congress. Once seated, the new Democratic majorities can attempt a binding War Powers Resolution to direct an end to the conflict. Both chambers passed a non-binding resolution in June. Earlier efforts to make one binding failed.
Sources
• Trump administration ‘must be changed’: Iran’s IRGC appeals to US voters, Al Jazeera
• Iran’s IRGC Addresses The American People In Unprecedented Open Letter, Daily Caller
• US voter opposition to war on Iran grows to new highs: Poll, Al Jazeera
• 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling Iran, new poll finds, PBS News
• How America voted in the 2026 midterms: Early takeaways from The AP Voter Poll, AP via WFTV
• Ghalibaf’s post on X, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf
• Americans have said ‘NO TO WAR,’ Iran speaker says of U.S. midterms, CNBC
• H.Con.Res. 86, all actions, Congress.gov
• Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Tells Americans to Remove Their Own Government, WECU News
Have a correction or tip? See our
corrections policy or contact the newsroom.
