Advisers to Vice President JD Vance are privately preparing for a potentially bruising Republican primary battle in 2028, as GOP senators begin positioning themselves for the contest to succeed Donald Trump. According to The Washington Post, Vance’s team expects rivals to emerge if he seeks the nomination. He has already begun rebuilding support among Republicans whose enthusiasm for his prospects has waned. Vance traveled to Las Vegas in late August to speak at the Republican Jewish Coalition summit, where some attendees have raised concerns about his relationship with Tucker Carlson, who has faced accusations of anti-Semitism while criticizing the war with Iran. After missing each other at the gathering, Vance invited conservative Jewish radio host Sid Rosenberg to the White House last week. He later hosted a Shabbat dinner at the Naval Observatory on Friday, ahead of Yom Kippur.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz has emerged as one of Vance’s most vocal potential challengers, criticizing the vice president’s position on Iran and his association with Carlson. Cruz has said Republicans will have a “discussion” about 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,” saying the two were “one and the same.” The maneuvering has also prompted Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, a favorite among Fox News viewers, to openly flirt with a presidential bid. Kennedy followed Cruz to Iowa—the first state to hold a Republican nominating contest—and addressed a major GOP gathering there Saturday. “I’m planning on running for reelection,” Kennedy told The 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.”
Kennedy, the folksy Louisiana Republican whose profile grew after his 2025 bestseller, How to Test Negative for Stupid, reported $18.6 million in his Senate campaign account at the end of June. Invoking the Judds’ 1984 country hit, he asked: “What was that song that the Judds sang, ‘Why Not Me?’” In a recent Bowling Green State University/YouGov poll of Republican voters, Vance led with 44 percent, followed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio at 21 percent. Rubio has said he does not intend to run and would support Vance, while Cruz registered 3 percent. Although Rubio remains a formidable name, he does not yet have the political operation associated with a 2028 campaign. Vance, meanwhile, has regular access to major Republican donors through his position as chair of the Republican National Committee’s finance operation.
MORE ON THIS: Prince William Declines Questions About Earl Spencer’s Book
Billionaire Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel, said in July that he would be “predisposed” to support Rubio over Vance. Griffin donated more than $100 million to Republican-aligned groups during the 2024 election cycle. Vance’s standing on the Kalshi prediction market fell from 43 percent in February to 31 percent in June as the Iran war helped Rubio climb to 30 percent. His odds have since rebounded to 45 percent, while Rubio’s have dropped to 21 percent. A May Emerson poll placed Rubio just one point behind Vance, and a McLaughlin survey last month showed Vance at 32 percent and Donald Trump Jr. at 19 percent. Vance’s reservations about the Iran war remain politically vulnerable after Trump acknowledged publicly that his vice president was “maybe less enthusiastic” about launching strikes in late February.
“He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me,” Trump told reporters in March, while stressing that the two men “get along very well” despite their disagreement. Speaking last week on the Pod Force One podcast, Cruz framed the coming primary as a larger ideological test for the Republican Party. “Are we a small-government, free-market conservative party, or are we a big-government nanny-state party?” he asked. Cruz also pointed to a divide over foreign policy, questioning whether Republicans favor isolationism and retreat or continued American leadership abroad. The Daily Mail has contacted the vice president’s office for comment. Florida Senator Rick Scott, one of the Senate’s wealthiest members, says he is not running. Still, at a Republican dinner in New Hampshire on Friday, he made clear which position he considers most desirable: “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 received 1 percent in the Bowling Green/YouGov survey, says he is evenly split over whether to launch a campaign and will wait until after the midterm elections to decide. “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-endorsed opponent, has also left the door open. Massie argues it is too early to assess 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,” he told The Post. “Who knows?”
NEXT UP: Where Is Ranulph Fiennes? Greatest Explorer Unseen for a Year