5 Republicans Who Could Run for President in 2028

2024 presidential race We may be barely behind, but the race to 2028 is already underway.

President-elect Donald Trump Term limits leave 2028 open for Republican candidates to pounce and secure the nomination.

“Once Trump became the candidate, we could even say, as soon as Trump won the Iowa caucuses in January with such an overwhelming majority, it all started,” said Iowa Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann, whose state will host the first GOP caucuses in 2028. year approximately 39 months after now.

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Here are five potential Republican presidential candidates for 2028:

Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance

When Trump returned to the White House, Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance is the clear favorite in 2028.

At 40, he has been presented as the ideal successor to Trumpian populism.

“A person who stands next to a president for eight years, or in this case four years, just has a tremendous psychological advantage,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, especially when he proposes something that the party base already supports. “Now they have a simple task: deliver.”

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But being Trump’s running mate is no guarantee of future political success. Former Vice President Mike Pence’s years of loyalty to Trump were erased in the eyes of many Republican voters when he refused to bow to Trump’s demands to try to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory. When Pence ran in the 2024 election, he often drew anemic crowds and boos from Trump supporters who called him a traitor. He dropped out a few months before the Iowa caucuses.

However, Vance likely would not have faced the same backlash: He has said in previous interviews that if he had been vice president on January 6, 2021, he would not have certified the results of the 2020 election.

“If I were vice president, I would tell states like Pennsylvania, Georgia and many others that we need to have multiple slates of electors, and I think the U.S. Congress should have fought for it from there,” Vance said in interview with the publication ABC News.

Nikki Haley

Trump’s final competitor in 2024, Nikki Haley received more votes than anyone else. who challenged Trump in the 2024 primaries. The former South Carolina governor and former Trump ambassador to the United Nations is popular among moderates but not well received by Trump’s base.

In July, she drew loud cheers when she took the stage at the Republican National Convention.

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“I didn’t always agree with Trump, but we agree more often than we disagree. … You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him,” she said in her speech.

Despite her public support for Trump, Trump never invited her to participate in his re-election campaign – and it is unlikely that she would receive his support if she ran in 2028.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is popular among the GOP’s old guard, Chamber of Commerce supporters who are uneasy about the populist brand of Trump and now Vance.

But Youngkin has studiously avoided criticizing Trump, and his conservative agenda in left-leaning Virginia mirrors many of Trump’s talking points. He supports expanded tax cuts, new restrictions on abortion and repeal of clean energy requirements.

Youngkin was a wealthy venture capitalist before he ran for governor.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio

Florida Senator Marco Rubio ran for president in 2016 and was a finalist for the 2024 ticket before Trump chose Vance..

Like Vance, Rubio was once a harsh critic of Trump. During the 2016 Republican presidential race, Trump began calling him “Little Marco” and ridiculing him. Rubio responded by insulting Trump’s makeup and the size of his hands.

Rubio also called Trump a “fraud” and “the most vulgar man to ever seek the presidency.”

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But their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House, and when Trump ran for president for a third time, Rubio welcomed his overtures.

In the Senate, Rubio has long been a prominent voice on immigration issues and was a key member of the panel that worked on a 2013 bill that created a path to citizenship for millions of people in the country illegally. Now Rubio says he supports Trump’s plan to use the U.S. military to deport those in the country illegally.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been the most steadfast of Trump’s several White House press secretaries, and in the process has become a sympathetic figure to Trump’s core voters.

In her first year as governor, she reportedly signed several conservative bills into law. Politicianincluding banning transgender students from using school restrooms of their choice, looser hiring rules for 14- and 15-year-olds, a ban on “obscene” materials in public libraries, vouchers for private and charter schools, and a ban on teachers discussing “gender identity” , sexual orientation and sexual reproduction” in school up to the fifth grade.

Sanders also delivered the Republican response to Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address.

Her father, Mike Huckabee, served as governor of Arkansas for 12 years and ran for president in 2008 and 2016.