'He gives me the willies': JD Vance's 2028 hopes brutalized by Trump voters
President Donald Trump's voters might not feel the same about Vice President JD Vance as they do about the commander-in-chief, two analysts revealed on Friday.
The Bulwark's publisher Sarah Longwell and managing editor Sam Stein shared in a Substack video how Trump supporters in a recent focus group said they don't have the same interest in Vance as they do the president.
"We were doing a group last week of Biden to Trump voters, and we were asking about Vance and their responses were straight," Longwell said.
Voters couldn't exactly name what it was — "but I just really don't like him," was the common sentiment, Stein explained.
"There's one woman in the group, she's like, 'I really don't like Kamala Harris, but I don't know, if it was Vance and Kamala, I'm probably voting for Kamala,'" Longwell said. "It was a whole, 'Yeah, I just don't like him. He just gives me the willies.'"
Stein said it could come down to personality.
"There's not much charisma there, to be honest. And it does feel like occasionally, or often, he's trying too hard to have charisma," Stein said.
Stein suggested there must have been something that voters were drawn to about him to elect him vice president. But Longwell offered a reminder of what happened in the months before Vance joined Trump's campaign.
"What happened is he was running in Ohio, he was running third, and then Trump endorsed him because they put together a thing that said if Trump endorses him, we can lift him into first place, which was true," she said.
Trump endorsed Vance, and that changed everything, Longwell argued. "He became a Trump loyalist willing to do anything to support Trump. He became friends with Don Jr. and Eric — and they convinced Trump to pick him."
Longwell predicted it would either be Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio heading into the 2028 presidential election.
"Whoever it's going to be is the one Trump — if Trump's still alive — likely picks as his successor," Longwell said.
She suggested that a Vance or Rubio ticket could give Democrats a path to victory.
"I think that they are eminently beatable and that they can't hold the America First, MAGA establishment together," Longwell said. "And that leaning into that fracture and the fact that a bunch of people who were Trump-only voters now start — go back and recede — Democrats have a chance."
Trump Voters Say JD Vance Gives Them the Willies by The Bulwark
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