JD Vance signals intention to run for president
The Catholic Herald • November 17, 2025
Catholic Vice President J. D. Vance strongly signalled his intention to run for the White House in 2028 but only after the crucial mid term elections of 2026.
Speaking to Sean Hannity on Fox News, Vance said, “I would say that I have thought about what that moment might look like after the midterm elections, sure.” He added, “But I also, whenever I think about that, I try to put it out of my head and remind myself the American people elected me to do a job right now and my job is to do it.”
Vance went on to underline the priority placed on the 2026 mid terms. “I really want us to win the midterms because, if the Democrats get in power, they are going to try to screw up a lot of the great things the President of the United States has done over the past ten months,” he said.
“Again, trees that have been planted, some of which will not even bear fruit for a few years. I do not want the Democrats to spoil that work. So we are going to win the midterms, we are going to do everything that we can to win the midterms, and then after that, I am going to sit down with the President of the United States and talk to him about it.”
As the incumbent Vice President to Donald Trump, Vance enters the race for 2028 with a powerful pedigree and the advantage of incumbency. His position makes him the front runner for the Republican nomination, a slot increasingly treated as de facto given the alignment with the Trump brand.
Yet division remains within the party. Rival conservatives have hinted at Catholic Marco Rubio as an alternative candidate, arguing that Vance’s populist economic and foreign policy posture diverges from classical conservative free market and hawkish defence traditions.
Rubio has responded by calling Vance a “great nominee” and noting that any contest remains far off. Vance himself adopted a conciliatory tone. “People have asked me, ‘Well, do you see Marco as a rival?’ No, no, no. Marco is a colleague. The President of the United States has asked each of us to do two very important jobs, and that is what we should focus on.”
Yet Vance’s prospective candidacy is also drawing scrutiny from a new and unruly quarter of the American Right, the young Catholic men who make up the online post liberal America First movement surrounding Nick Fuentes.
These self described post liberals, often university aged and disproportionately Catholic, have grown into a disruptive force in Republican politics, particularly in Washington’s younger staffer circles. One senior insider recently estimated that thirty to forty per cent of Generation Z congressional and administration staffers now count themselves as admirers or fellow travellers of Fuentes, nicknamed “groypers.”
Their scepticism toward both traditional conservatism and mainstream populism places Vance in an uneasy position, made more volatile by Fuentes’s increasingly confrontational rhetoric. Addressing Vance directly in a recent livestream, Fuentes said, “Hey, listen, fat boy, we want America first. You want to run for president? We want to hear you say America first. Now, J D Vance, I will tell you this, you do not like me, I do not like you.”
He continued by threatening a full scale mobilisation if Vance distances himself from the movement. “If Vance condemns the Groypers, we are deploying to Iowa. I swear to God, I will be there in Iowa with ten thousand Groypers and we will be knocking on doors and we will be spending money. Cross that red line, we will be your worst enemy politically.”
The Groypers’ willingness to intervene presents an unusual challenge for Vance, who must balance loyalty to the mainstream Republican coalition with the rising expectations of a faction that is predominantly Catholic and claims to represent the future of the American Right.
The 2026 mid term elections now loom as the critical hinge in this drama. Victory for Republicans could consolidate Vance’s path towards the nomination. Defeat would force a recalibration of the field.
Historically, vice presidents have had mixed success in succeeding to the presidency. Some have used the office as a reliable springboard while others have faltered amid public fatigue or changing political winds. Vance will be desperate not to replicate the disastrous election campaign of Kamala Harris, which became the scapegoat for all of the Biden administration's failures.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)