Rubio pulls head of Vance among possible 2028 White House hopefuls, new poll shows

Marco Rubio takes No. 1 spot in new poll of possible 2028 White House candidates.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has opened up a significant lead over Vice President JD Vance and the rest of the potential 2028 field of Republicans who may make a run for the presidency, a new poll has found.

Rubio commanded a 45.6% plurality of support, the poll found, with JD Vance placing second, at 29.6%, and Ron DeSantis, the only other Republican to hit double-digit support, with 11.2%. Rubio's star has been on the rise in recent months. Not only has he won wide praise for handling multiple significant roles within the Trump administration, he's been seen as an effective communicator for the president on the objectives of the Iran war, as well as U.S. action in Venezuela and the administration's handling of Cuba.

Rubio also ran the White House press briefing last Tuesday and drew a chorus of applause from pundits and commentators for his off-the-cuff response to a question on his hopes for America. Later in the week, Rubio traveled to Rome to meet with Pope Leo in an effort to shore up ties with the Vatican as the pope has feuded with Trump over the Iran war. Dave Rubin has been polling readers of his free newsletter for nearly a year to rank the members of the Trump administration by performance, and Rubio has dominated that regular polling over the last six months. 

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, the poll showed AOC in the lead among Democrat voters, with 26% support. The race among the Democrats is far more splintered, with Pete Buttigieg and Gavin Newsom both polling above 20% in the survey, and former VP and 2024 presidential candidate Kamala Harris, registering nearly 13% support. AOC in recent days has made waves with hostile -- and sometimes uninformed -- rhetoric toward billionaires. 

Another question the poll asked respondents was: "Do you agree that the Democratic Party is facing a crisis of leadership?" 79% of the more than 2,000 Americans who took part in the poll responded that they agreed, and another 68% of respondents agreed that Democrats have "systematically betrayed some of their longstanding constituents." 

To read the poll in its entirety, click here and download the PDF.