Vice President JD Vance and his allies are privately debating whether he should seek the presidency in 2028, following sweeping Republican losses in Tuesday's midterm elections, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing people close to him.
Some allies have told Vance they no longer believe any Republican can win the White House in two years. On Election Day, a longtime confidant texted him suggesting he consider sitting out the race, according to the report. Vance has told associates he has not made up his mind, six people close to him told the Journal.
Democrats flipped seven Republican Senate seats on Tuesday, among them Vance's former seat in Ohio, and captured governorships in Georgia and Texas. Within a day of the vote, a veteran New York fundraiser began hearing from major donors who said they could not support Vance and floated Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as an alternative, the report said.
In a lengthy essay posted on social media this week, Vance blamed the Iran war for the party's losses and said Republicans needed to change their relationship with Israel. Republicans in Washington widely read the essay as a first step toward distancing himself from some of President Donald Trump's unpopular policies, the Journal reported. Donald Trump Jr. publicly endorsed the essay. People close to Vance told the newspaper the results were a rejection of the war rather than of Trump, and predicted the president's coalition could be rebuilt once the conflict ends.
Text messages viewed by the Journal show that in January, as Trump weighed a major military operation, Vance privately urged him not to give up on diplomacy and began gathering polling on the risks of an all-out war. The polling showed the public split 44% to 43% on going to war, while 62% said fewer than 100 US combat deaths would be acceptable and 65% said Trump should seek congressional approval first. Trump told the Journal he has not second-guessed the decision. "I did the right thing," he said on election night. "I would have done it again."
Despite the doubts, Vance retains significant advantages over potential rivals, including high name recognition, consistent leads in primary polling, and his role as finance chair of the Republican National Committee, which keeps him in regular contact with major donors.
He also drew criticism during the campaign for attacks on Democratic candidates who went on to win, including calling Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed "a little weasel who should shut his mouth."
Two people close to Vance suggested he instead run for his old Ohio Senate seat or for governor, but he rejected both ideas, according to the report.
Trump has declined to endorse a successor. "Maybe he won't run," Trump said of Vance on Wednesday. "I don't know who's going to run." Vance himself acknowledged at a CBS News town hall in October that "there's a chance" he never runs.
