by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News March 30, 2026
With 53% of the vote, Vice President JD Vance was selected as the leading candidate to take the Republican Party nomination for president in 2028, according to a straw poll taken at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was second at 35 percent. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump Jr. came in at 2 percent each. Sen. Ted Cruz, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sen. Rand Paul, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott all had 1 percent support.
The poll was announced at the end of the four-day CPAC conference in Grapevine, Texas.
Vance also holds a substantial lead in the RealClearPolitics average of New Hampshire’s 2028 Republican presidential primary polls conducted in February 2026 and March 2026.
Vance leads those polls at 47.3 percent, and Rubio is second at 17.3 percent. They are followed by former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley at 6.7 percent and DeSantis at 5.3 percent.
President Donald Trump is believed to not be eligible to run for president in 2028. The president did not attend the 2026 CPAC conference.
The CPAC straw poll supports earlier polling that had Vance as the leading candidate.
A September 2025 poll from YouGov showed Vance with a commanding early lead in the 2028 Republican presidential field. The survey had Vance as the top choice with 44 percent of Republican respondents, far ahead of any other potential candidate.
The rest of the field trailed in single digits; Trump Jr. drew about 10 percent, followed by DeSantis at roughly 8 percent and Rubio near 4 percent.
Vance talked to Fox News host Sean Hannity in November 2025 about running against Rubio in a presidential election.
In a segment that was aired separately from the full interview, Hannity said Rubio was Vance’s “best friend” in the administration, and Vance agreed.
“People have asked me, ‘Do you see Marco as a rival?’ “ Vance said. ”First of all, if either one of us end up running, it’s a long ways in the future and none of us are entitled to it. It would be ridiculous for me to say, ‘Marco is a rival.’ No. No. No. Marco is a colleague.”
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