A leading Republican senator is reportedly vying to challenge Vice President JD Vance for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination, according to a Monday report. Sen. Ted Cruz is reportedly privately running down Vance in conversations with donors as he weighs a possible White House run.
Cruz, the last major challenger to Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, has not publicly acknowledged presidential ambitions. Still, two unnamed sources allegedly told The Washington Post that the Texas senator is seriously considering another bid—suggesting the early jockeying and quiet sniping for 2028 are already underway.
The Texas senator also appears to be positioning himself for a looming clash with Vance over the nomination.
Vance is widely viewed as the heir apparent to the MAGA movement and the natural successor to Donald Trump, even though Trump has not formally endorsed Vance or anyone else, for that matter.
“According to the Post, Cruz has been criticizing Vance’s foreign-policy views in chats with GOP donors, complaining that they are overly isolationist. Cruz has also allegedly told a close ally that he’s been encouraged to run,” the Daily Beast noted, citing the original reporting.
“He is said to have been energized by his outspoken criticism of what he calls ‘Jew hatred and Israel bashing’ within the GOP following the war in Gaza—an issue that has led him to repeatedly clash with former Fox News host and podcaster Tucker Carlson,” the DB added.
“Can Ted help craft or meld together the traditional Republican approach with the new reality of what the Republican Party is now?” Daron Shaw, a political science professor at the University of Texas, told the Post. “It’s a heavy lift.”
Outgoing Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a MAGA ally, has become more critical of Trump’s policies. She also suggested that Cruz might face challenges in gaining congressional support against Vance in the 2028 primary.
“The Republicans will be fighting for their identity,” Greene told the Post. “There’ll be Ted Cruz, I’m sure, running against JD Vance. All of us hate Ted Cruz.”
Even Hal Lambert, a major GOP donor who helped bankroll Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 bid through a pro-Cruz super PAC, has reportedly voiced skepticism about Cruz’s prospects in a head-to-head fight with Vice President JD Vance—a telling sign that doubts about Cruz’s viability extend beyond his critics.
“If JD Vance is running, I’m going to be supporting JD Vance,” Lambert said. “I just don’t understand what the platform [Cruz] would be. The platform would be, ‘I’m Ted, and that’s JD?’”
It’s not clear if the alleged sources for the Post’s story are legitimate; it’s possible they are insider operatives working to undermind the GOP in general or Vance’s likely coming campaign. That said, his nomination appears to be a sure thing at this point.
Last weekend, Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, endorsed Vance for president in 2028 while opening Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference.
Nearly two months after a widely shared embrace between the two, Erika — who has assumed leadership of the organization following her husband’s death — appeared on stage at the Phoenix Convention Center on Thursday, Dec. 18, to formally back Vance’s anticipated White House bid.
“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” she told thousands of activists, per video of her speech that was posted online. The announcement was met with loud applause, People magazine noted.
Vance, 41, has not said whether he plans to run for president after President Donald Trump’s current term, though Republican strategists widely expect any decision to come after the 2026 midterm elections.
If he does run, Turning Point USA could offer a significant boost. The nonprofit has become a major force in conservative youth organizing and MAGA politics, building substantial influence within the Republican grassroots through its nationwide campus network.
