OAN Staff Blake Wolf
2:42 PM – Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio ruled out a presidential run in 2028 should Vice President JD Vance seek the nomination, effectively deferring the decision to the vice president.
In a Vanity Fair interview published on Tuesday, Rubio announced, “If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him.”
As President Donald Trump has been elected to the presidency twice, the GOP has begun to look for a potential leader to carry the torch into the future, with many speculating that there may be an internal power struggle between Vance and Rubio.
Rubio’s capitulation marks a major development towards the future of the Republican Party, which increasingly appears to be Vance’s position to lose.
President Trump previously stated that if Rubio and Vance teamed up to form a group, “it would be unstoppable.”
“We have JD obviously — the vice president is great. Marco’s great. I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two. I think if they formed a group, it would be unstoppable,” Trump stated in October.
According to a Politico poll conducted in October, Vance is the leading favorite to garner the support of Americans who voted for President Trump in 2024, with 35% of respondents stating that they would support the vice president should he run for the presidency in 2028.
In contrast, just 2% named Rubio as their favorite to lead the GOP into 2028.
“Marco has been very clear that JD is going to be the Republican nominee if he wants to be,” an anonymous individual close to Rubio told Politico last month. “He will do anything he can just to support the vice president in that effort.”
Meanwhile, President Trump’s political director for his 2024 presidential campaign, James Blair, noted that any potential 2028 GOP candidates should be focused on securing a Republican victory in the upcoming midterm elections, which will play a significant role in the effectiveness of the second half of Trump’s term.
“If you’re a Republican that wants to run in 2028 right now, you need to focus on keeping Republicans in power for 2026. I think the number one thing everybody can do is focus on the team and helping their team, and not focus on themselves,” Blair stated. “Voters will sniff out anybody who has seemed to be sort of focused on themselves.”
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