With former president and now President-elect Donald Trump unable to run again for the White House in 2028, Vice President-elect JD Vance appears to be the heir apparent to the America First movement and the Republican Party’s powerful MAGA base.
It was a point driven home by Donald Trump Jr., the former and future president’s eldest son and powerful ally of the vice president-elect.
‘We are getting four more years of Trump and then eight years of JD Vance!’ Trump Jr. said two weeks ago on the campaign trail in Ohio.
Vance, who was elected to the Senate in Ohio just two years ago, will likely be the clear frontrunner in the next Republican presidential nomination race.
‘The vice president will be in the catbird seat. No question about it,’ longtime Republican consultant Dave Carney told Fox News Digital.
Carney, a veteran of numerous Republican presidential campaigns over the past four decades, said that Vance ‘is the guy to beat.’
David Kochel, another longtime GOP strategist with plenty of presidential campaign experience, told Fox News that Vance is the frontrunner due to ‘the size and the scope of last week’s victory and the implied passing of the torch from Donald Trump.’
‘There will be no shortage of people looking at it. But most people looking at it are seeing the relative strength of the Trump victory and the movement,’ Kochel said.
Trump, in his victory speech late on Election Night, noted that he faced some criticism in July for naming Vance as his running mate, saying ‘I took a little heat at the beginning.’ However, he emphasized ‘he turned out to be a good choice.’
Additionally, with Trump’s support in a party firmly in the president-elect’s grip, the 40-year-old Vance will be extremely hard to knock off.
However, Kochel noted that ‘nobody will completely defer to JD Vance. There will be a contest. There always is.’
Carney added that ‘there may be other people who challenge him [Vance]…there’s a lot of people who want to be president, but it will be very hard a lane other than the Trump lane.’
He added that a possible rough four years for the Trump/Vance administration would give potential Vance challengers ‘opportunities.’
However, he praised the vice president-elect’s messaging and accessibility on the campaign trail and that ‘he is the guy to beat, regardless of whether it’s a good four years or a rough four years.’
Carney also touted that the Republican Party has a ‘deep bench.’
Here’s a look at some of those on the bench that may have national aspirations and ambitions in 2028, or beyond.
The conservative governor of Florida was flying high after a landslide re-election in 2022, but an unsuccessful 2024 presidential primary run and a bruising battle with Trump knocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis down in stature.
However, the term-limited 46-year-old governor, who has two years left in office steering Florida, proved over the past few years his fundraising prowess and retains plenty of supporters across the country.
DeSantis was also able, to a degree, to repair relations with Trump, helped raise money for the GOP ticket during the general election, and earned a prime time speaking slot at July’s convention.
While DeSantis may have his eyes on another White House run, with Sen. Marco Rubio likely leaving the Senate to become America’s top diplomat, there’s a possibility DeSantis could run in a 2026 special Senate election.
The popular conservative governor is one of the few in the GOP who can claim he faced Trump’s wrath and not only survived, but thrived.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who is term limited, has two years left in office and enjoys strong favorable ratings in a crucial battleground state.
Expect to see the 61-year-old Kemp on the campaign trail across the country for fellow Republicans in 2026, as his national profile expands.
With his 2021 gubernatorial victory – the first by a Republican in Virginia in a dozen years – Gov. Glenn Youngkin instantly became a GOP rising star.
In Virginia, governors are limited to one consecutive four-year term, which means Youngkin has one year left in office.
The 57-year-old governor, who hails from the Republican Party’s business wing but has been able to thrive in a MAGA-dominated party, likely harbors national ambitions.
A first step could be a cabinet post in the second Trump administration after his term as governor ends.
Sen. Ted Cruz was the runner-up to Trump in the blockbuster 2016 Republican presidential battle.
The controversial conservative firebrand passed on challenging Trump again in 2024, as he ran for what was thought to be another difficult re-election bid, after narrowly surviving his 2018 re-election.
However, the 53-year-old senator ended up winning a third six-year term in the Senate by nearly nine points.
The Army veteran, who served in combat in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars before becoming a rising star in Republican Party politics, was considered to be on the larger list of potential Trump running mates.
The now-47-year-old Sen. Tom Cotton seriously mulled a 2024 White House run of his own before deciding against it in late 2022, putting his young family ahead of political ambitions. However, he did not rule out a future presidential bid.
Cotton is currently bidding for the GOP conference chair, the number three leadership position in the incoming Senate Republican majority.
The 44-year-old Sen. Josh Hawley, along with Cotton, is another rising conservative star in the Senate.
Hawley is also a strong defender of Trump’s America First agenda and is thought to have national aspirations.
The former two-term South Carolina governor, who served as U.N. ambassador in Trump’s first term, was the first GOP challenger to jump into the race against the former president in the 2024 nomination race.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley outlasted the rest of the field, becoming the final challenger to Trump before ending her White House bid in March.
While the 52-year-old Haley ended up backing Trump in the general election, her earlier clashes with the now president-elect during the primaries left their mark. Even though she addressed the GOP faithful at the convention, her political future in a party dominated by Trump is uncertain.
The first-term conservative governor of Arkansas is a well known figure in MAGA world, thanks to her tenure as Trump’s longest serving White House press secretary during his first administration.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas governor and former two-time presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, has also grabbed national attention for delivering the GOP’s response to President Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address.
The multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur, anti-woke crusader and first-time candidate was one of the biggest surprises during the GOP presidential nomination race.
The now 39-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy, who touted during his campaign that he and Trump were the only two ‘America First candidates’ in the large field of contenders, eventually dropped out of the race and became a major backer and surrogate for the former president.
Others to keep your eyes on include Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who ran for the 2016 nomination and may end up with a top cabinet post in the second Trump administration; Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2024 nomination but remains very popular; and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who both mulled but decided against presidential runs this past cycle.
Also, not to be ignored – top Trump supporters Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, whom Trump on Monday named to serve as U.S. ambassador to the U.N., and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
Then there is Donald Trump Jr., the president-elect’s eldest son and MAGA warrior. However, the younger Trump is very close to Vance, which would likely prevent him from making any White House bid in the next cycle.
