CPAC picks JD Vance as Republican frontrunner for 2028
Donald Trump recently said "no" when asked if he sees JD Vance as his successor.
Republican voters just informed Donald Trump that he doesn't get to decide his successor, Republican voters do.
A straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington, DC, showed JD Vance as the easy favorite to be the Republican nominee in 2028.
Vance collected the vote of 61% of attendees at the event.
Steve Bannon was second with 12% and Ron DeSantis was third with 7%.
No other candidate collected more than 3% of the vote.
@VP @JDVance wins @CPAC 2028 straw poll with 61%@Bannons_WarRoom 12%@RonDeSantis 7 pic.twitter.com/Ked1bCrlFj
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) February 22, 2025
CPAC's straw poll in 2023 showed Donald Trump as the preferred 2024 nominee over Ron DeSantis, but the poll has not always accurately predicted who the next nominee will be.
Often, the type of people to attend CPAC and take the time to vote in a straw poll differ from the general public. Straw poll participants are often highly engaged and politically-minded people, which isn't always the case when it comes to who shows up on election day.
In 2010 and 2011, Representative Ron Paul won consecutive straw polls but was never able to become the Republican nominee for president.
In 2012, Mitt Romney won the straw poll with only 38% of the vote and later became the Republican nominee.
In 2016, Ted Cruz received 40% of the vote in CPAC's straw poll but was beaten out by Donald Trump in the primaries despite Trump only having received 15% support in the straw poll.
CPAC attendees may disagree with Donald Trump on who his successor should be, but that's where the dissent stops.
Virtually everyone at the conference agreed with everything else Donald Trump has said and done since taking back the White House - 99% of attendees agreed with the statement "The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency have been the best for the modern conservative movement in my lifetime."
