In today’s edition … One reader pleads for no more campaign ads … The anti-Muslim rhetoric in Michigan is staggering … but first …
Possible 2028 contenders hit Vance via Ramaswamy
As Republicans broke with Vivek Ramaswamy over his controversial attack ad against Amy Acton, Vice President JD Vance, embodying President Donald Trump’s political operating theory of never apologizing, stood by him.
That decision has led to a lot of criticism of Vance — not just because Vance is his party’s second-in-command, but because the 2028 race has already begun. And upbraiding the vice president gave both Democratic and Republican 2028 hopefuls a chance to weigh Vance, widely seen as the GOP favorite to run for president, down with the ad, and his response. That it evoked Trump’s style gave Vance’s rivals an opening to say his possible campaign comes with a heap of Trump-led baggage.
“Vance’s acceptance of this campaign ad only breathes life into the disease that we should be seeking to cure,” former New Jersey governor Chris Christie told me after the ad came out, choosing mostly to focus on the vice president and less on Ramaswamy, a Republican he called “the most obnoxious blowhard in America” when they both ran for president.
“This is a product of that Trump-Vance politics of the lowest common denominator,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro told CNN’s Dana Bash. Shapiro is widely seen as a likely Democratic contender for president in 2028. “I think you’re going to see Americans of all stripes, Democrat and Republican, come out and reject it,” he added, labeling Vance as “profoundly and pathetically weak of a human being.”
And Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, another possible 2028 Democratic candidate, tweeted that Vance’s response was “disgusting” and that he “should be ashamed of himself.”
“Vivek Ramaswamy and JD Vance have reached a low I did not think was possible by attacking a survivor of childhood sexual assault,” Beshear wrote on X, linking to Vance telling an audience in Ohio that all Ramaswamy did was “run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar.”
It is telling that in all three instances the possible 2028 candidates choose to hit Vance via Ramaswamy, and highlights how while the vice president may be the most obvious heir apparent to Trump’s no-holds-barred political legacy, that inheritance comes with some unhelpful weight.
Vance has said he hasn’t decided about running for president in 2028, telling reporters last month he will decide after the midterms. He told CBS News this month that “of course” he might not run and that he is a “procrastinator,” but he also told reporter Mark Halperin that if he does run, he thinks “the president will endorse” him.
So it remains to be seen whether Vance will run, but that last answer made it clear he at least sees himself as the heir apparent to Trump’s political movement.
My colleagues Theodoric Meyer and Natalie Allison reported last month that other Republicans are angling to challenge the assumption — namely Florida Sen. Rick Scott, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — and observed how “a fractious contest for the nomination could force Vance to reckon with Trump’s less popular policies while laying out his own vision for the party’s future.”
That is what is playing out here. The midterms are upon us, and Republicans are preparing for an election that could severely repudiate Trump’s first two years in office. Losses next week would further complicate Vance’s path to the presidency, as some Republicans may respond by breaking with Trump’s more unpopular policies, something that could prove difficult for his sitting vice president.
Some historical trends apply here, too. Sitting vice presidents often do poorly when trying to succeed the presidents they served under. George H.W. Bush was the last sitting vice president elected president, in 1988, and many have failed, including Al Gore in 2000 and Kamala Harris in 2024. Those losses occur because voters often want change, and it is hard for a sitting vice president to be a change candidate.
Spokespeople for Vance did not respond to a request for comment about the way his possible 2028 rivals have hit him for the Ramaswamy response.
But this entire fracas reminds us that while 2026 is on the immediate horizon, 2028 has already begun.
From across the newsroom
- The seven races that will decide control of the Senate, from Theodoric Meyer and Klara Auerbach.
- Max Miller, fighting domestic abuse allegations, scrambles to hold House seat, from Alexei Koseff.
- Can you trust a chatbot to make you a voter guide? We put them to the test, from Kevin Schaul and Ian Duncan.
- Michele Tafoya, NFL reporter turned Senate hopeful, toes the line on Trump, from Rick Maese.
- Alaska’s GOP-led government moves to kill Trump-ordered suit over Senate results, from Patrick Marley.
- Trump administration can block immigration judges from closing deportation cases, from Justin Jouvenal.
What I’m watching
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers are locked in a competitive race in Michigan to fill the open Senate seat vacated by retiring Rep. Gary Peters (D).
If El-Sayed wins, he would become the nation’s first Muslim senator, and the anti-Muslim rhetoric coming from Republicans around the Michigan Senate race has been staggering.
While campaigning in Michigan this weekend, Trump called El-Sayed a “jihadist,” argued he was “on the side of the terrorists,” and said the Democrat would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.”
El-Sayed has faced a number of GOP attacks over a claim that his mother, who divorced El-Sayed’s father and moved away when the candidate was three, was active in the Muslim Brotherhood during the 1970s. The State Department recently deemed parts of the Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
Trump also invited David Beamer, the father of a passenger who was on United Flight 93 during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, to speak, and the father compared the race to the attack.
“What’s different this time is the enemy has not come from abroad. The enemy is right here among us, local terrorists, local citizens that want to demolish our country,” he said as Trump stood behind him.
Others campaigning in Michigan have used similar rhetoric.
“There’s five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don’t produce science. They don’t produce literature. All of that tradition has been destroyed by the Muslim Brotherhood. They have created stagnant societies,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said while campaigning in the state.
The rhetoric stands out for several reasons. First, Trump’s brand of politics often seeks to otherize candidates or scare voters on the eve of an election. Previous examples include caravans of immigrants at the southern border.
But it is politically noteworthy because Trump and Republicans did surprisingly well with Muslim and Arab voters in 2024, using the conflict in Gaza as a wedge between the voting bloc and Harris, the Democratic nominee. Laura Beveridge and Scott Clement wrote this month that Arab Americans “evenly split their votes between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in 2024,” but now have swung toward Democrats in the midterms.
What remains to be seen is whether this rhetoric at the close of the campaign could hurt — or help — Republicans like Rogers in Michigan. Arabs make up 2 percent of Michigan’s adult population.
Rogers told NBC News this weekend that the attacks are only about El-Sayed and his family’s purported ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.
“This is not about Islam. It’s not about how he prays. It is about his adherence to this radical Islamic agenda,” Rogers said.
And Alyssa Brouillet, a spokesperson for Rogers, said the Republican “condemns hatred in all forms — including Islamophobia.”
In your local paper
Georgia Recorder: Georgia Republicans are trying to court Latino voters, but national politics are complicating their efforts.
North Dakota Monitor: Should families be sent to collections if they can’t afford school lunches? Lawmakers in the state passed a bill banning so-called “lunch shaming,” but some consequences still exist.
City & State Pennsylvania: Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a bell-to-bell cellphone ban in schools, jumping on one of the most broadly popular issues in the nation and calling it a “great thing for education across Pennsylvania.”
From you
We received a bunch of fun responses to our question about your favorite and least favorite ads of the cycle.
Long story short: You didn’t like Ramasway’s ad featuring Acton’s mother. And you liked her response.
But Susan Jones, a reader in Connecticut, sent in a very interesting response.
“The best campaign ads are NO campaign ads. Think of what those millions of dollars could do for good causes and need in our communities!” Jones wrote. “It’s disgusting. I would back a limit of a very low amount of money spent on ads. Put every candidate on equal footing. And have a review board on what kinds of truth or negativity, or something!, that ads can contain.”
Send a reply
We are getting to the end of the midterm elections. So I wanted to ask you a broad question that I was asked on MS NOW yesterday: What is the top issue you are voting on this cycle? Is it prices? The war in Iran? Something else? I’d love to know the top issue you are voting on this year. Let me and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
Thanks for reading. You can follow me on X at @merica.
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