Two top-ranking Republican officials have refused to throw their backing behind JD Vance as a prospective heir to the MAGA throne.
In separate interviews Sunday, Senators Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham both declined to say they’d be supporting the vice president as a prospective GOP pick for the 2028 election.
“I think there needs to be representatives in the GOP who still believe international trade is good, who still believe in free market capitalism, who still believe in low taxes,” Paul, a hardline libertarian, told ABC News, adding “no” when asked if he thought Vance fit that particular bill.
Lindsey, meanwhile, side-stepped the question entirely when asked on NBC if he would join slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika Kirk in endorsing Vance. “I’m worried about tomorrow, but that’s a big day for JD,” he somewhat cryptically told the network, quickly pivoting to praise President Donald Trump’s escalation of tensions with Venezuela.
Paul and Graham’s skepticism of Vance comes after the vice president received ringing endorsements earlier this week from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Erika Kirk.
Rubio’s endorsement was notable for following a reported internal battle between himself and Vance for support for a prospective White House run among powerbrokers within GOP ranks.
Rubio has since reportedly told confidants that Vance is the frontrunner for the 2028 Republican nomination and that he’d support the vice president if he chose to run.
Rubio and Kirk’s endorsement nevertheless comes against the wider backdrop of Trump himself refusing to rule out a Constitution-defying run for a third stint in the White House.
“I would love to do it,” the MAGA leader told reporters earlier in October. “I have my best numbers ever.”
Latest polls put Trump’s approval rating at 36 percent. Not quite his worst ever, but only two points above his all-time low of 34 percent in the immediate aftermath of the Jan. 6 riots.
The president might remain coy about his ambitions, but his allies have struck a more sincere note when it comes to prospects of overturning roughly 250 years of Constitutional history.
“Trump is going to be president in ‘28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that,” former MAGA strategist Steve Bannon told The Economist earlier in October. “At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is.”
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