Republican strategist Karl Rove rejected the idea that the Republican Party should nominate Vice President JD Vance to run in the 2028 presidential election instead of holding an open primary, stating that “it would be a mistake.”
While speaking with CNN reporter Patrick Svitek at the Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday, Rove spoke about how only “twice in American history” have presidents endorsed their vice president to run for president and won.
“Coming out of the midterms there’s obviously a range of scenarios in terms of how quickly the Republican presidential primary could take shape,” Svitek said. “One of those scenarios is JD Vance gets in, Trump endorses him, and there’s no real race. Number one, would that be a mistake in your view. And, how much would you like to see more of an open, competitive, spirited primary?”
“It would be a mistake,” Rove responded. “First of all, remember the history of endorsing your vice president and having him run and win, this happened twice in American history — 1836 with Andrew Jackson and followed by his Vice President Martin Van Buren, and 1988 when Ronald Reagan was followed by his Vice President George H.W. Bush.”
Rove when on to talk about when Reagan endorsed Bush for president, Reagan endorsed him in September 1988, “after the primaries” and after the Republican National Convention because he knew presidential elections “are about change.”
Rove pointed out that Reagan also understood that “what he needed to do was give George H.W. Bush the ability to go to the convention” and state that he was going to be a different kind of president and not a “clone of the guy who was in there.”
“The Republicans need a wide-open contest, and the Democrats need a wide-open contest, and more important than that, America needs an open contest on both sides,” Rove continued. “Both of our parties are broken, both of our parties are weakened — weakened by Super PACs, weakened by the law, weakened by the fact that they’re sort of dominated by big personalities.”
Rove added that “if Trump picks JD Vance” to endorse and run in the 2028 presidential election, due to his power over the Republican Party, and the party being “large enough,” Vance will end up being the nominee.
Rove’s comments come as he and President Donald Trump have been at odds for several years “over Trump’s candidacy, policy positions, and election strategy.”
In a Truth Social post from September 14, Trump said Rove was “so bad for the Republican Party, and completely wrong so often.”
“He suffers from a major case of Trump Derangement Syndrome primarily because, for almost 10 years, I beat back and won against so many of the people and things that he wanted and espoused,” Trump wrote. “Why does FoxNews and the WSJ keep his RINO Voice alive. The guy is a stone cold loser!”
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