These JD Vance challengers smell blood in the water after brutal midterms
Ambitious Republicans were already sizing up the vice president ahead of the next presidential primary. Now, they are emboldened.
“I think the caucuses and that presidential process started on Wednesday morning, if not Tuesday [election] night,” said Bob Vander Plaats, a longtime conservative activist in Iowa and president of the evangelical group The Family Leader, who endorsed DeSantis in 2024. “Because if you believe you have a case to be made of why you’re the messenger of the future, this would be your time.”
Vance has not decided whether to run in 2028, but was quick to publicly distance himself last week from Trump’s unpopular war with Iran and approach to affordability – a key step to remaining a viable candidate, allies of the vice president say. Vance leads early Republican primary polling and remains the betting market favourite for the GOP nomination. He also brought in significant funds as the Republican National Committee’s finance chair.
Despite Tuesday’s poor outcome, his allies are still laying the groundwork for a run. Over the weekend, the Rockbridge Network, a political donor and advocacy group Vance co-founded, gathered in Texas for a long-planned midterm postmortem, according to four people with knowledge of the event. Vance did not attend, though his political future was among the topics discussed.
But the midterm drubbing has intensified interest among some prominent Republicans to have an earnest presidential primary, rather than a Vance coronation. Vance always expected to face a competitive presidential primary, people around him have long said. A person close to the vice president said Vance winning a hard-fought primary would be better for him than being anointed, anyway.
