Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio appear to be headed toward 2028 as the next Republican presidential ticket, according to voters and polling, but there’s a catch.
It’s not yet clear which one will be running at the top of the ticket, though it would seem that Vance is the natural choice.
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Rubio strengthened his position at the top of this week’s Western Journal presidential straw poll, extending his lead over the rest of the Republican field.
Rubio received 46.1% of the vote in the publication’s non-scientific survey conducted during the week of Aug. 10-16, the outlet said on Monday.
That marked an increase of 2.8 percentage points from the previous week’s poll, further solidifying his standing among respondents.
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Vance remained in second place with 24.3% support, up 2.4 percentage points from the Aug. 3-9 survey.
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky experienced the largest decline among the leading Republican contenders, losing support from the previous poll. He fell to 12.7 percent, a drop of 3.9 percentage points from the previous week.
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The weekly survey is not a scientific measurement of voter sentiment and does not necessarily reflect the broader Republican electorate.
However, it offers a snapshot of how participants in the poll currently view the potential 2028 presidential field, the outlet reported.
Rubio’s growing advantage suggests that he continues to maintain strong support among the survey’s respondents, while the competition for second place remains more fluid.
According to Fox News, the president told donors at a meeting in the Oval Office in early August ago who he will back.
“At the end of the day, we need to elect JD,” an anonymous source quoted Trump as saying to the Washington Post.
During a donor event in Las Vegas later, Trump mentioned Vance once, praising him for his work on combating fraud.
“He’s doing a great job,” Trump said of the vice president.
🇺🇸 Straw poll RESULTS are in for the week of Aug. 10-16 — here’s how the GOP 2028 field stacks up:
Marco Rubio – 46.1%
JD Vance – 24.3%
Thomas Massie – 12.7%
Donald J. Trump – 8%
Ron DeSantis – 6.2%
Other – 2.7%Submit a new vote each week at The Western Journal’s… pic.twitter.com/zoZuys10G1
— The Western Journal (@WesternJournalX) August 17, 2026
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Trump has not made a final decision about whom he would support as a potential successor in the 2028 presidential election, according to multiple sources familiar with his thinking.
Sources told the Washington Examiner that Trump has privately said, “We need to elect JD,” but cautioned that his comments should not be interpreted as a formal endorsement.
“That’s DJT. He will say ‘it’s JD’ and then he’ll say to someone, ‘Who do you like between Marco and JD?’ It’s just how DJT is,” a Republican strategist close to the administration told the outlet last week.
“He’s been saying this s*** to donors and others that it’s going to be JD for a while, but with DJT nothing’s ever for sure until he makes a public endorsement,” the source further claimed.
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A former senior Trump White House official said the president has continued to discuss the possibility of a Republican ticket featuring Vance and Rubio in 2028.
According to the former official, Trump remains interested in the idea but is uncertain whether Rubio would be willing to sign on to serve as a vice president, the Examiner added.
“Nothing is set in stone. I think [Trump’s] going to want to see how the midterms turn out, see what the money landscape looks like before making an actual endorsement,” that person told the Examiner.
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“The funny thing is you have all of these ‘insiders’ claiming to know exactly what the president will do, but I’d say that’s all up in the air until the president actually tweets it out,” the source continued.
Trump himself was asked on last week about the Washington Post report that he’d told GOP donors that “at the end of the day, we need to elect JD.”
“I think he’s great, but we’re way too early to even be thinking about that,” Trump said in response.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
