Advisers to Vice President JD Vance are privately preparing for a potentially bruising 2028 Republican primary, as GOP senators begin positioning themselves to succeed Donald Trump.
Vance’s team expects him to face serious challengers if he enters the race. According to The Washington Post, he has already begun working to rebuild support among Republicans who have grown less confident in his prospects.
At the end of August, Vance traveled to Las Vegas to speak at a Republican Jewish Coalition summit. Some attendees have questioned his relationship with Tucker Carlson, who has faced allegations of anti-Semitism while criticizing the war in Iran.
After missing each other at the RJC gathering, Vance invited Jewish conservative radio host Sid Rosenberg to the White House last week. The vice president also hosted a Shabbat dinner at the Naval Observatory on Friday, ahead of Yom Kippur.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz has criticized Vance’s position on Iran and his ties to Carlson. Cruz has said Republicans will have a “discussion” over Trump’s successor—and that he intends to be “part of” it.
In secretly recorded donor meetings from 2025 obtained by Axios, Cruz described Vance as a Carlson “protégé” and claimed the two men were “one and the same.”
The early maneuvering has also prompted one of Fox News’ favorite Republican personalities to openly entertain a presidential bid. Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, 74, followed Cruz to Iowa—the first state to hold a GOP nominating contest—and addressed a major Republican gathering there on Saturday.
“I’m planning on running for reelection,” Kennedy told The Washington Post. “But if I get tired of this place and/or if a bunch of goobers run for president, then I reserve the right to run.”
JD Vance, joined by his wife Usha Vance, speaks at Vantage Plastics in Bay City, Michigan, on March 14, 202
Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy delivers remarks during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in May 2023
The folksy Louisiana senator saw his profile rise after the release of his 2025 bestseller, How to Test Negative for Stupid. His Senate campaign account held $18.6 million at the end of June.
“What was that song that the Judds sang, ‘Why Not Me?’” Kennedy said, referring to the country duo’s 1984 hit.
Vance led a recent Bowling Green State University/YouGov poll of Republican voters with 44 percent, followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 21 percent. Rubio has said he does not plan to run and would support Vance, while Cruz received 3 percent.
Rubio also lacks the political organization that could rival Vance’s. He has no established network of aides dedicated to a 2028 campaign, while Vance’s position as Republican National Committee finance chair gives him regular access to the party’s largest donors.
Ken Griffin, the Citadel billionaire who donated more than $100 million to Republican-aligned groups during the 2024 election cycle, said in July that he would be “predisposed” to support Rubio rather than Vance.
Vance’s odds on the Kalshi prediction market fell from 43 percent in February to 31 percent in June, as the Iran war pushed Rubio’s odds to 30 percent. Vance has since recovered to 45 percent, while Rubio’s figure has dropped back to 21 percent.
An Emerson poll in May placed Rubio just one point behind Vance. A McLaughlin survey last month, meanwhile, gave Vance 32 percent support and Donald Trump Jr. 19 percent.
Vance’s reservations about the Iran war are already emerging as a potential vulnerability. Trump publicly acknowledged in late February that his vice president was “maybe less enthusiastic” about launching strikes.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz speaks on Capitol Hill in April 2024
Donald Trump shakes hands with Vance on stage at the Midterm Republican National Convention in Dallas on September 10
Marco Rubio, second lady Usha Vance and JD Vance on the South Lawn of the White House in April
‘He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me,’ Trump told reporters in March, while insisting the pair ‘get along very well on this.’
Asked about Vance on the Pod Force One podcast last week, Cruz said that the party was in the midst of an ideological battle: ‘Are we a small-government, free-market conservative party, or are we a big-government nanny-state party?’
‘That’s a really big, fundamental divide about what we believe … On foreign policy, are we an isolationist party? Do we want to just withdraw from the world? Or do we believe in American leadership?’
The Daily Mail has contacted the vice president’s office for comment.
Florida Senator Rick Scott, one of the richest men in the Senate, insists he is not running but made clear which job he rates highest at a GOP dinner in New Hampshire on Friday.
‘The best job is to be the president,’ Scott said. ‘If that’s not available, be the governor. If that’s not available and you still have to do something, maybe be a US senator.’
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who scored 1 percent in the Bowling Green/YouGov poll, says he is 50-50 on a run and will not decide until after the midterms.
‘I think the Republican primary electorate’s probably more with me than with the rest of them,’ he told the Post.
Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie, who lost his May primary to a Trump-backed challenger, has not ruled out a run but says it is pointless to size up the field before the midterms.
‘Maybe we lose the majority, everybody’s down on Trump, then he gets impeached three times and everybody likes him again,’ Massie told the Post. ‘Who knows?’
