With Donald Trump term-limited after his current term, Vice President JD Vance is widely seen as the logical heir apparent to succeed him as the Republican standard-bearer.
However, another new report states that some Republican donors are favoring not Vance, but rather Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Per ABC News, some top GOP donors are seeking to draft Rubio for a presidential run in 2028.
NEW: Some GOP donors are already quietly mobilizing behind Rubio for 2028 — plotting ways to boost him over Vance, including a “draft Rubio” effort after the midterms, sources tell ABC News
Comes as Trump has privately been noting how “popular” and “loved” Rubio has become since…
— Will Steakin (@wsteaks) March 16, 2026
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“While the vice president remains well-positioned ahead of a likely 2028 campaign, questions are quietly emerging over Vance’s inevitability, especially as Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s profile and responsibilities have grown throughout the first year of Trump’s second term, most recently around the war with Iran,” the ABC News report says.
Trump hasn’t endorsed a successor and likely won’t for a while, but the ABC report says that “people around the president have noted the lavish praise Trump heaps on Rubio, privately but also in public, often starting standing ovations for him and declaring that Rubio will go down as ‘the greatest secretary of state in history.'”
Trump has also recently been asking associates, “Marco or JD?,” Axios reported in February.
Meanwhile, a “Draft Rubio” movement is forming among the GOP donor class.
“They described an emerging, behind-the-scenes effort to elevate him within the party and stand up a potential ‘draft Rubio’ effort following the midterms,” ABC News reported. “The discussions, according to those sources, are being driven by donors and surrogates who support Rubio, not the secretary of state himself, reflecting what some in Trump-aligned circles see as a growing enthusiasm for Rubio’s rising profile inside the administration.”
However, per ABC, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Rubio will become the nominee. And a lot is going to ride on how well the Iran campaign goes.
“Donors don’t pick the nominee — the base picks,” a senior Republican operative was quoted as telling ABC News. “Donors tried to abandon President Trump and tried to pick [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis, and we all saw how that went.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
