Vice President JD Vance is facing opposition from prominent backers of Israel over his role in negotiating an end to the war with Iran. Yet not all Israel-supportive conservatives are being swayed by the campaign to discredit him.
At a gathering of hundreds of conservative Christians in Washington this weekend, attendees from around the country overwhelmingly supported President Donald Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, a sign of how strong support for Israel remains among conservative evangelical Christians, even as it is declining in the U.S. overall.
But despite criticism from influential pro-Israel Republicans — many of whom are rooting for someone else, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to be nominated for president in 2028 — the crowd at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority Conference included many who support Vance for president.
Among more than a dozen attendees interviewed by The Washington Post, half said they liked Vance and aren’t ruling him out.
That puts them in a very different place than conservative pro-Israel influencers and radio and television hosts like Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro, who have cast doubt on Vance’s foreign policy and attempted to portray him as insufficiently supportive of Israel.
“I think it’s easy to be a back-seat driver,” James Gallagher, of Salisbury, Maryland, said of Vance’s negotiations with Iran, which have come under criticism from some Republicans closely aligned with Irael.
Gallagher, who is also open to Rubio and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as potential nominees, said it is still too early to pick a candidate. But he said that as a retired member of the military, he has been impressed by Vance, who served as a Marine.
“Every time President Trump gives him a job,” Gallagher said, “he’s effective, and he’s aggressive and he gets things done.”
There were seemingly as many Rubio fans at the gathering as Vance backers — a sign that the vice president still has significant work to do to consolidate the 2028 Republican primary vote.
But the existence of a pro-Vance faction in a crowd with strong pro-Israel views showed that his prominent role in brokering an end to the Iran war, and even his recent rebukes of Israeli officials’ complaints, isn’t necessarily a liability for him with traditional conservatives.
Socially conservative Christians remain a critical voting bloc in Republican primaries.
Polling shows that Republicans remain supportive of the Trump administration’s handling of the war, while most voters overall don’t believe it was worth it. As the war’s popularity has continued to drop and an increasing number of Americans suggest the U.S. is too supportive of Israel, the president tapped Vance to find an exit from the conflict despite not accomplishing his original list of goals.
One of the audience’s first big cheers of the day came when Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a longtime leader of conservative Christian political action, thanked the president for having the “courage and the clarity” to take military action in Iran.
Doug Thompson, a preacher from Kentucky sitting in the back of the room with his wife, joined the applause.
The couple celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a trip to Israel, he said, and believes the United States has a moral duty to maintain a strong relationship with Israel.
“The Bible tells us we ought not to forsake the friends of our father,” said Thompson, the executive director of Baptist Zionist Public Affairs Committee, an advocacy group representing more than 20,000 Baptist churches “for the well being of Israel,” according to its website.
He brought a stack of the group’s magazine to hand out to spread awareness and said he was worried about rising antisemitism.
But Thompson said he didn’t yet have strong opinions about whom he’d like to see lead the GOP in 2028 and beyond. Vance is on his list of Republican contenders he could get behind, along with Rubio, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Discussing Vance, Eric Hollifield, chair of the McDowell County Republican Party in North Carolina, said he thinks “it would be hard not to put him at the top of the ticket.” Hollifield’s 16-year-old son, Grayson, who will vote in his first presidential election in 2028, said he, too, likes Vance, describing him as someone who comes across as “trustworthy” when he talks.
Kim Hunter of Erie, Pennsylvania, similarly dismissed criticism by fellow conservatives about Vance’s efforts to negotiate with Iranian officials to reach a deal to end the war.
“JD Vance, he’s doing more as a vice president than any previous vice president,” Hunter said as she waited in line for concessions at the event. “Most people look at the vice presidency as a nothing job.”
But to her right, Steven Patrick of Pittsburgh — decked in a red MAGA cap — chimed in.
“I love JD,” Patrick said, “but I want to see a Rubio-McCormick ticket.” He was referring to Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pennsylvania), who had just spoken onstage at the conference but who is rarely mentioned as a 2028 contender.
Rubio, Patrick said, has “experience on the world stage” and is “grounded with his virtues and his beliefs,” Patrick said.
“I think JD Vance is great, but I don’t see him with the leadership skills that Rubio has,” he said.
The 2028 election was hardly a focus of anyone onstage at the conference, which emphasized the need for Republicans to hold their congressional majorities and touted Trump’s accomplishments. The two men seen as the most likely heirs to the Republican Party were not at the gathering, with Trump himself serving as keynote speaker.
There was some evidence that recent efforts by pro-Israel influencers to turn Republicans away from Vance have worked. Joshua Botello, who attends an evangelical, charismatic Christian church in Salt Lake City, said he likes Vance fine — except for what he has heard about Vance’s positions on Israel.
“I do think he doesn’t stand with the values we as Christians have for Israel,” Botello said. “I believe as Israel goes, so America goes.”
Next to Gallagher, the Maryland man who remains undecided but open to Vance, his wife, Tessa, said she thinks Rubio is her first pick for 2028.
She noted Vance’s “meteoric rise” and his relative youth — he hasn’t been in government as long as Rubio — as potential downsides. But she was impressed by Vance’s recent appearance on “The View” and his ability to engage with liberal hosts “in a very respectful way.”
“I’d feel good about Vance if he was the candidate — I would definitely vote for him,” Gallagher said. “But I’m just not sure he’s my first choice at this point. I keep going back to Rubio.”
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