JD Vance may be the Trump White House's connection to Gen Z, but a small group of young male Trump voters doesn't sound terribly eager to promote him to the top of the ticket for 2028. In a focus group of nine men ages 18 to 24 who backed Donald Trump in the last election, conducted Monday by GOP strategist Sarah Longwell's firm and shared with Politico, only one participant initially raised his hand when asked if he wanted to see Vance as the Republican nominee next time. Even that lone supporter, a Georgia voter who cited Vance's experience as vice president as an advantage, later sounded uncertain.
Others questioned Vance's ties to the more controversial aspects of Trump's second term; his ability to win a general election; and what they saw as shifting positions over the years. One Minnesota voter argued Vance is "too connected to the current political establishment in Washington" and accused him of having "flip-flopped on a lot of issues." When asked who they'd prefer as 2028 contenders, participants named figures including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tom Cotton, and Florida gubernatorial candidate James Fishback.
The same group also diverged from traditional Republican positions on foreign policy. On US support for Israel, five said Washington backs Israel too much, while and four said the level is about right; none wanted more support. Some said US resources should be directed to domestic problems, which extended to Trump's talk of buying Greenland: When asked if the US should purchase the Danish territory, not a single hand went up. One California participant called the idea unnecessary and said the US should "focus on what's actually happening inside the nation."
Per Newsweek, an unexpected candidate is making inroads with the far right: California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has appealed to some in this group due to his family's "beautiful genetics," as white nationalist Nick Fuentes puts it. Among voters overall, a small poll this past fall showed that Gen Z voters ages 18 to 29 would pick Newsom over Vance 55% to 25%, though RealClear Polling notes that pulling out just this subset from the poll's larger overall pool of respondents "lacks the statistical reliability of a full poll."
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