By Jack Phillips
Vice President JD Vance said he will wait until after the upcoming November midterm elections before making a decision on running for president in 2028 and that he will “have to think about” the prospect first.
Speaking in a CBS News town hall interview published on Oct. 18, Vance was asked by moderator Tony Dokupil whether there is a chance he won’t run for president during the 2028 election.
“Of course there’s a chance,” he said, adding: ”The way that I think about life, big life decisions—my wife will tell you this—is I’m a procrastinator. I hate thinking about it.”
He later added that he will “have to think about it.”
“We’ve got four little kids. My wife has never loved politics, she loves public service. I think you can do a lot of good in this job, and I’ve tried to do as much good as possible. But, I really, people ask me this question all the time, and I think they assume because I’m a politician, ‘of course he’s going to run for president in 2028,’” Vance said.
Vance also said, “What will happen is, that, first of all, after all these fine people elect Mike Rogers [as] United States Senator for the state of Michigan, what’s going to happen is then I’ll have to think about it. And then I will actually have to make a decision. But, you know, anything can happen, man, anything.”
Should Vance enter the 2028 race, he would likely become an early favorite among Republicans. President Donald Trump said in August that he is “most likely” to be a top contender to be his successor and “heir apparent” to the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, movement that he started.
“It’s too early, obviously, to talk about it. But certainly he’s doing a great job, and he would be probably favored at this point,” Trump said at a signing ceremony on Aug. 5.
Usha Vance, the second lady, told NBC News in March that a Vance 2028 presidential campaign has not been a focus of their household conversations. The Vance family welcomed their fourth child in July.
“If you come back in 2027 and ask me, I’ll have a better sense of, you know, what he’s thinking in that way,” she said.
During the town hall event in Michigan, the vice president took questions from voters in the state that helped propel Vance and Trump to their 2024 respective victories.
Currently, the Michigan U.S. Senate seat is up for grabs, with Rogers, a Republican, running in a heated race against Democrat Abdul el-Sayed.
Vance was asked by attendees of the town hall about the economy and prices. At one point, the vice president said that the United States has been mired in economic problems for decades.
“What broke the United States, as much as I might like to criticize Joe Biden, but it was a bipartisan, multi-generational failure to under-invest in American workers, to under-invest in American manufacturing, to ship all of our good jobs overseas,” Vance said. “If all the good jobs are overseas, then people here in Michigan can’t spend money at your family business.”
The midterm elections, held on Nov. 3, will determine whether Republicans or Democrats control the House, Senate, or both.
Republicans currently hold small majorities in both chambers.
