The 2024 election is in the rearview mirror, and now we need to start focusing on 2028. Yeah, I know that 2026 and the midterms are ahead, but they will take care of themselves if Trump can get his economic plans through and turn America into the 80s-esque powerhouse it can be once again. And yeah, I also know that nobody wants to hear about 2028 now. Too bad.
A failure to plan and prepare is inevitably a failure to win. Trump has one more term, and then he’s off to Mar-a-Lago forever. The Democrats, and some in the Republican establishment, are going to try to erase what Trump has done over the decade-plus he’s been in the political eye of the storm. We can’t let that happen. We need to keep this new Republican Party and its new coalition going. It’s not a matter of being on defense and solidifying our gains. It’s a matter of taking them to the next level.
But who can replace Trump? Trump is a unique character, one who has not only revolutionized American politics and reformed the coalitions within the parties but who has actually infiltrated the culture. If you watch sportsball, you see the players doing the Trump dance on the field after a victory. The Trump movement is more than just a political movement – it’s a cultural movement, and that’s important. Remember, many people in our new coalition – particularly low-propensity voters and young men – hate politics. They despise it and find it uninteresting. They don’t want anything to do with it. There are only two reasons why they chose to have something to do with it in 2024. One is the fact that politics was interested in them, and they were getting all sorts of woke nonsense shoved down their throats even as they were being impoverished by quasi-socialist policies. The other was Donald Trump, who made politics fun for once.
So, that’s a challenge for the next Republican candidate. How do you step into Donald Trump‘s very expensive shoes if you’re not Donald Trump? The guy is unique, a once-in-a-century individual with no analog out there on either side. He is rich enough not to care what everybody else says, but he also has a personality that makes him not care what everybody else says. Combined with his unparalleled communication skills and his uncanny ability to message, the result is that whoever follows him will have to somehow achieve the same results without all of these characteristics. That’s a challenge. We need to start building our bench now. Fortunately, Donald Trump is doing that. The most important thing Donald Trump can do to help the next Republican nominee win in 2028 is to be a terrific president who makes America great again, but Trump is also giving a hand to potential candidates with his personnel choices.
The most obvious one is JD Vance, who proved himself a spectacular vice-presidential candidate. He’s so smart and so articulate that he runs rings around a regime media that is used to Republican stiffs and hacks who they can turn into caricatures. I’m talking about you, Mitt Romney – good riddance to that loser.
JD Vance had a lot of doubters at first, and they tried to paint them as weird, and that didn’t work because he’s a great guy, and he’s not weird. He’s relentlessly normal while also being relentlessly smart. The question is whether he can also be fun, whether he can give the cultural cachet to conservatism that Donald Trump has given it. As Andrew Breitbart famously said, “Politics is downstream from culture.” Trump is moving America away from the doom and gloom of socialist malaise and back into the bright, fun USA that we knew in the 80s. JD Vance has to continue with that. He’s already been great on popular podcasts and even has his own meme – the famous JD Vance debate side-eye meme.
Ron DeSantis is the other major contender. His thing is not so much the cultural aspects embodied by Donald Trump. He’s just flat-out super competent. That’s his selling point – Make America Florida. He’s been a great governor, an unbelievable leader, and a loyal supporter of Donald Trump the minute the primary ended in Trump’s favor. The smart money is on a primary race, with JD and Heavy D facing each other for the nomination. How great would that be? Two incredibly confident and capable candidates, both unbelievably smart and able to speak complete and coherent sentences, unlike so many other politicians.
We should be so lucky! And I think we will be so lucky. I think those are the two to watch in 2028.
But there are others out there. Vivek Ramaswamy will certainly consider running. His work at DOGE with Elon Musk will allow him to highlight his skills and put some concrete achievements on the leaderboard. That was one of his problems during the 2024 campaign – he talked a good game but hadn’t actually done anything. By 2028, maybe he will have.
Ted Cruz still wants to be president. He’s starting to get older and may think this is his last shot. His challenge is that he’s no longer the new kid on the block. I would not be surprised if he chooses to replace Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito instead.
Marco Rubio may have the same issue—we’ve seen him run before. As Secretary of State, he’ll certainly have a bully pulpit for at least a couple of years. But he’s pretty establishment, and that might not inspire the Trump coalition. We will have to see.
Kristi Noem, the incoming DHS secretary, may give it a shot. The problem is she also gave her pet puppy Cricket a shot, and I don’t think anybody’s ever going to forget that.
Governors Brian Kemp from Georgia and Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas may give it a try. They have both been solid governors and would make good presidents, but it’s going to be hard to get past the top two contenders.
And, of course, there’s Nikki Haley. No. Just no.
The Republicans are in a good place – we’ve got young and exciting candidates who are super competent, most of whom have never gunned down a pet. The 2028 election will be a changing of the guard to a new generation for the Republicans, but also for the Democrats, too. We will probably see such candidates as the Stepford Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Governor Gavin Hairstyle, and Governor Josh Shapiro, who’s actually competent and scary. Whoever we nominate has to be prepared to take them on head-on. And there’s one other factor to consider.
Who, if anyone, will Donald Trump support? Because that may settle the issue at the outset.
My super-secret email address is Kurt.Schlichter@townhall.com
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