Rubio tops Vance in new 2028 presidential poll

President Trump meeting with JD Vance and Marco Rubio.

A new poll shows Marco Rubio outperforming JD Vance in a national poll that surveyed respondents on a host of potential 2028 matchup scenarios. 

The poll was conducted by Emerson College Polling and asked 1,000 U.S. voters how they would vote if the vice president and the secretary of state were matched up with five different Democrat candidates -- ex-Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. 

Overall, the poll results weren't great for Republicans. The only candidate both Vance and Rubio topped in the poll was AOC, with Vance edging her by two points and Rubio enjoying a five-point margin. The poll returned a split decision against Kamal Harris as the former VP bested the current VP 49%-45% in a hypothetical matchup. Rubio, however, swept up 48% of the vote in the poll, while Harris managed just 43%.

Every other matchup in the poll went to the Democrat candidate, and Pete Buttigieg saw the widest lead of any Democrat, topping both Vance and Rubio 49%-44%. Ossoff also lead Vance 49%-44%, but his advantage over Rubio was within the poll's margin of error. 

In recent weeks, almost all of the Democrats to appear in the poll, apart from Newsom, have made news. Ossoff found himself heavily criticized this week after taking a cheap shot at Natalie Harp, a close aide to President Trump. The week before, AOC grabbed all the headlines when she attempted to laugh off her history of woke ideology. And both Harris and Buttigieg in recent weeks drew headlines over their separate calls to abolish the Electoral College. 

Not all polls have shown Rubio leading Vance, but Rubio's edge over Vance ahead of 2028 is not limited to this new Emerson College poll. Dave Rubin has been polling the thousands of readers of his newsletter, The Rubin Recap, about who they prefer as the Republican nominee in 2028. After Vance won the first poll, Rubio has taken the next two, and the results haven't been close as readers clearly have been showing a preference for Rubio being the strongest choice to bolster Trump's legacy. 

75% of Rubin Recap readers backed Republicans nominating Rubio in a poll earlier this month.

Rubio won the latest round with 75% of the vote among Rubin Recap readers. Sign up for Dave's free newsletter here.

The Emerson Poll also questioned respondents on whether they support the DSA, and, overall, 60% of participants responded "no." But when the results were broken down by party, the poll showed 46% of Democrats answered "yes."