On the 3rd (local time), after the Republican Party suffered a crushing defeat in the U.S. midterm elections, U.S. Vice President JD Vance received a text message from a long-time associate. The content was advice that it would be better not to run for president in 2028.
Political figures who support Vice President Vance told him that they did not believe that the Republican candidate could win the presidential election in two years, and those close to him agreed that Vice President Vance had not yet decided whether to run for president.
This is the trend from Vice President Vance's side reported by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 8th.
WSJ reported that the results of the midterm elections have shaken Vice President Vance's political future, and that Vice President Vance and his associates are considering whether to run for president in 2028.
In this election, as criticism of President Donald Trump swept through, Vice President Vance, the second-in-command in power, was embroiled in strong repercussions. Georgia and Texas, which were supposed to be key support bases in the future presidential race, were lost to the Democratic Party, and Vice President Vance's home state of Ohio also lost its Senate seat to the Democratic Party.
Cracks have been identified in the Marga coalition built by President Trump, and there is no suitable means to quell the complaints of Republicans who have turned their backs.
Those who have provided political funds to the Republican Party have also begun to keep an eye on sleepers outside the Trump administration who have been marginalized for the future of the party.
The WSJ reported that a New York fundraiser said he was receiving calls from large donors saying they "cannot support Vance in 2028," and that they mentioned Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as an alternative.
They say that members of the administration, including Vance, are inseparable from President Trump and are not appropriate candidates for the next presidential election as they have already suffered a blow from the midterm elections. Moreover, it is known that Vice President Vance's failure to retain his seat in the U.S. Senate in his home state of Ohio has become a source of concern for donors.
However, Vance's associates interpreted his defeat in the midterm election not as a rejection of President Trump but as a rejection of the war with Iran, predicting that he would be able to rebuild the Trump coalition once the war is over.
He also argued that any Republican presidential candidate who attacks President Trump will ultimately face the risk of ending his political career.
Vice President Vance also began to differentiate himself from President Trump by posting a long article after the election, locating the cause of the crushing defeat in the war with Iran.
Some close associates recommended to Vice President Vance that he should not run for president and then try to make a political comeback by regaining his seat in the Ohio U.S. Senate or running for governor of Ohio, but Vice President Vance is said to have rejected this offer.
However, the WSJ reported that Vice President Vance did not come to a definite conclusion about his political future, and that the Republican Party's crushing defeat made it difficult to decide whether to run for president.
Meanwhile, rivals such as Governor DeSantis and Senator Ted Cruz are raising voices that differentiate themselves from the Trump administration.
Governor DeSantis, who will leave office in January next year according to the three-member limit, diagnosed the midterm election as a rebuke to the President and the (Republican-led) Congress when the Republican Party ended in a crushing defeat.
Analysis suggests that the fact that Florida is one of the few strongholds where the Republican Party maintained its dominance in this midterm election, in which the Democratic Party won a landslide victory nationwide, could serve as a political asset for Governor DeSantis.
Senator Cruz, a traditional conservative Republican different from the Mark camp, is also criticizing President Trump's tariff policy, inflation, and the war with Iran as the reasons for the defeat.
Representative Cruz recently posted an article and said, “The 2026 midterm elections are not just a blue wave, but a blue tsunami,” and “It is a complete crushing defeat and a Watergate-level rejection (of public opinion).”
