Vance to weigh 2028 run after midterms

Vice President JD Vance said he will wait until after the 2026 midterm elections to discuss a possible 2028 presidential campaign with his wife, second lady Usha Vance, while signaling that President Donald Trump would support whatever decision he makes.

“I have no doubt that the president of the United States is going to be very supportive of anything that I ultimately decide to do,” Vance said in an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning.” “But we really just haven’t talked about what that thing will be.”

Vance, widely viewed within the Republican Party as a leading potential contender for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination, said he is not focused now on a future campaign. He said the decision will come later, after voters decide the 2026 midterm elections.

“Usha and I will absolutely sit down and talk about what comes next for our family,” he said. “People sort of assume that I’m sitting around, figuring out, whether I’m gonna run for president … the way that I make decisions is that I try not to make them until I absolutely must.”

Vance said he does not initiate conversations with Trump about his political future, though the president raises the subject.

“I never bring it up,” Vance said. “But sure, the president brings it up a lot, sometimes publicly, sometimes privately. You know, the president’s a political animal. He loves this stuff. He’s very fascinated by it.”

Asked whether Trump has encouraged him to seek the Republican nomination, Vance said the president’s comments are “not positive or negative.”

“It’s just … he kind of talks about it, like, ‘What’s gonna happen,’ you know? ‘How do we make sure that we’re successful? What does that mean for the future?’ It’s more of a conversation like that,” Vance said. “So, we talk about it, but not in any great detail, because, again, I think both of us are focused on the here-and-now.”

Vance added that he does not want speculation about his next role to interfere with his current one.

“I really don’t ever want my thought about a future job, whether it’s president or anything else, to make me a worse vice president,” he said. “And the way to do that is to keep my attention on the job I have right now.”

The interview was taped last Tuesday at the vice presidential residence and aired June 14 on “CBS Sunday Morning.” Vance also discussed his new memoir, “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith,” which details his conversion to Catholicism. The book is scheduled for release June 16.

Vance represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate for two years before Trump chose him as his running mate in 2024. He previously served in the U.S. Marine Corps, earned a law degree from Yale Law School and wrote the 2016 bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”

Other Republicans mentioned by party insiders or in news reports as possible future contenders include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri, and conservative media personality Tucker Carlson. The Guardian reported that Donald Trump Jr. has also expressed interest in running for higher office, citing The Washington Post.

The Washington Post previously reported, according to The Guardian, that Vance may have delayed a 2028 decision because his fourth child is due in July, citing an unnamed source close to him.