by Frank Holmes, reporter
President Donald Trump has just taken office and, according to polls, is off to a historic start.
Although he’s done so much in such a short time, Americans remember they are just eight weeks past the most destructive presidency in U.S. history, and voters have one question: Who will be his successor when the term-limited president leaves office in four years?
Will it be Vice President J.D. Vance, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, or maybe a complete wild card who has spent a career outside politics? Who will pick up the MAGA mantle against the Democratic Party and the establishment GOP in the next election?
Speculation is raging out of control over the 2028 presidential race, and a new poll just poured gasoline on the fire.
Vance, DeSantis, Hawley, and many others have their eyes on the top office; DeSantis threw his boots in the ring in the last primaries and would like to mount another bid for the Republican presidential nomination. But he just got some seriously bad news in his own backyard.
If the 2028 Republican presidential primaries were held today, Ron DeSantis would lose to J.D. Vance handily…in Florida.
According to a poll of registered Republicans likely to vote in Florida’s primary, Vice President Vance would beat Gov. DeSantis by 14 points: 47 percent of GOP voters backed Vance compared to just 33 percent of Republican Floridians who supported DeSantis for president, concluded the poll from Fabrizio Lee & Associates.
“Gov. Ron DeSantismay still be interested in running for President in 2028. But new polling says Florida voters may want a different option,” wrote A.G. Gancarski of FloridaPolitics.com, which received the poll exclusively.
That tracks with opinion polls nationwide.
The annual CPAC conference backed J.D. Vance for president with a whopping 61 percent of the vote. Second place, at only 12 percent, belonged to former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. Conservatives ranked Gov. Ron DeSantis a distant third with seven percent.
The two-term Florida governor manages to take home the silver medal in most other polls. He came in second last month in an Echelon Insights poll, 29 points behind J.D. Vance.
A survey from January saw DeSantis garner eight percent support, 19 points behind J.D. Vance in a McLaughlin & Associates poll.
Vance’s virtual victories may be the next battle in an all-out, years-long war between Gov. DeSantis and President Trump which has bubbled just below the surface.
The next chapter comes in 2026—and it’s already turning ugly.
📊 2028 National Republican Primary
• Vance 39%
• DeSantis 10%
• Haley 8%
• Ramaswamy 5%
• Rubio 4%
• Cruz 4%
• Noem 2%
• Huckabee Sanders 2%
• Hawley 1%
• Youngkin 1%
• Burgum 1%
• Britt 1%
—
• Undecided 20%@EchelonInsights | 2/10-13 | N=466 pic.twitter.com/qX9xATEgZ0— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) February 13, 2025
Ron DeSantis has presided over a massive change in Florida’s voter landscape, turning a purple state decidedly red. He won a huge re-election campaign and, now serving his second term, cannot run for another four years in Tallahassee.
DeSantis has strongly hinted he knows exactly who he wants to follow him in the governor’s mansion: his wife, Casey.
President Trump has other ideas. He’s already endorsed Congressman Byron Donalds, R-Fla.
Tensions boiled over two weeks ago, when Gov. DeSantis attacked Donalds as completely irrelevant to the legislative success he’s ushered in at Florida.
“He’s just not been a part of it. He’s been in other states campaigning,” said DeSantis. “And that’s fine, but OK, well then, deliver results up there.”
President Trump urged Donalds to become the next governor in his adopted home state, the location of Mar-a-Lago.
“Byron Donalds would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida and, should he decide to run, will have my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, BYRON, RUN!” said President Trump in a post on his social media outlet, Truth Social. “As Governor, Byron would have a BIG Voice, and would work closely with me to advance our America First Agenda.”
The endorsement appears to have impacted the gubernatorial race already: A new poll shows Donalds edging out Casey DeSantis by a razor-close four points: 34 percent to 30 percent.
That poll also comes from Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, which worked for the Trump campaign in 2016.
President Trump claimed his endorsement helped pull DeSantis over the finish line in a squeaker win over socialist Democrat Andrew Gillum in 2018.
DeSantis won a landslide reelection campaign in 2022 but floundered in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries. He’d like to run again—but the fact that he dared challenge President Trump at all deepened a rift between the two onetime allies.
But after a huge falling out with his first vice president, Mike Pence, the president appears to be keeping his options open about who will adopt the MAGA mantle.
When asked if J.D. Vance is his successor, he hedged.
“No, but he’s very capable. I think that you have a lot of very capable people,” replied President Trump. “It’s too early. We just started.”
Trump says too early for him to see VD Vance as his successor. pic.twitter.com/xMVUSKqnF1
— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) February 11, 2025
“So far,” said President Trump, “I think he’s doing a fantastic job.”
Floridians seem to agree—and if trends continue like this, DeSantis may lose one or two battles against the Trump machine.