As Vice President JD Vance positioned himself as President Donald Trump’s natural successor at the Republican midterms convention Thursday night, his principal rival, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, ruled himself out of the running.
Vance, 42, delivered a 40-minute address in the American Airlines Center in Dallas that “felt like a presidential nominating convention speech,” according to Reuters, in which he attacked Democrats, paid tribute to Charlie Kirk on the anniversary of his assassination and rebuked a heckler with a Mexican flag.
The VP was met with chants of “48!” by the MAGA crowd, backing him to become the country’s 48th president, and was congratulated by the 47th afterward, who told reporters aboard Air Force One that his deputy had done “very well” and was a “very talented guy.”
Vance has since joined the four previous presidents – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden – in New York City to observe the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at Ground Zero, an event the incumbent ducked in order to be at the Pentagon.
By contrast, Rubio, 55, was not present for the two-day event in Dallas. He spent the week touring South America instead, where he gave an interview to Colombia’s RCN where he was asked about his own ambitions for the White House.
open image in gallery“I don’t know what the future holds, but I have no plans at this time,” he answered.
“I’m not a candidate for anything right now. And I’m 100 percent focused on my job, and I have to be because I have two jobs.” The secretary was alluding to his secondary role as Trump’s acting national security adviser.
An insider subsequently told NBC News that Rubio “loves being secretary of state and is really enjoying the job” and has no intention of running in 2028 but added: “If you asked him if he’s interested in 2032 or 2036, he would probably say sure.”
As a Florida senator, Rubio did seek the Republican nomination in 2016, a contest in which he sparred nastily with Trump before suspending his campaign after losing his home state.
More recently, he enjoyed a brief bounce in popularity following January’s successful surprise operation to remove Nicolas Maduro from power in Venezuela, only to subsequently fade into the background as the president’s Iran war took center stage.
open image in galleryFor a while, it was reported that Trump enjoyed asking conservatives behind the scenes whether they preferred Vance or Rubio as his heir, pitting the two friends against each other, with the latter politely indicating he would not run as a challenger to the VP.
The president has not publicly endorsed either man, nor has Vance definitely said he intends to run – he could yet choose to opt out, given that his wife Usha Vance has just given birth to their fourth child and the likelihood of Democrats profiting from a sharp reaction against Trump, whose approval ratings are currently languishing in the low 30s.
However, in private, the president has reportedly told his party’s donors: “At the end of the day, we need to elect JD.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are two more names that have recently been put forward, with Trump saying of the former in late August: “I think he’s doing a fantastic job, but it’s very early to talk about that.”
On the opposite side of the aisle, Vance’s predecessor as vice president, Kamala Harris, has been mentioned as a Democratic nominee again, although she has so far refused to commit.
open image in galleryThe betting markets meanwhile favor the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, who made waves recently by teasing Trump over his relationship with his executive assistant Natalie Harp.
Much will depend on November’s midterms, which the speakers at Trump’s convention attempted to make about immigration, crime and culture war issues, rather than the president’s unpopular war and affordability, two subjects on which voters have routinely expressed their dissatisfaction to pollsters.
Trump himself promised U.S. citizens $5,000 checks as a reward for the GOP hanging onto the House of Representatives and Senate – which some have called a bribe and pointed out would cost $1.3 trillion – and called on attendees to pledge their allegiance to his cause or “go to hell.”