A straw poll conducted at the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) found that conservative voters see Vice President J.D. Vance as the likely Republican presidential nominee for the 2028 election cycle.
“You guys are the conservative movement, you guys are the thought leaders, the opinion leaders. We asked folks who they thought would be the Republican nominee, who they preferred for the Republican for president in 2028. And who is it?,” Jim McLaughlin, president of McLaughlin & Associates Polls, said Friday from the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on Saturday, per Fox News.
“JD Vance. And why? Because he’s viewed as the closest thing to Donald Trump,” McLaughlin added, he did not provide additional data on Vance’s support among CPAC attendees. According to the full CPAC straw poll results posted on X, attendees also viewed Steve Bannon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential Republican nominees behind J.D. Vance.
?@CPAC STRAW POLL RESULT: When asked who they think should be the 2028 Republican nominee for president, CPAC attendees chose Vice President @JDVance.
JD Vance – 61%
Steve Bannon – 12%
Ron DeSantis – 7%
Marco Rubio – 3%
Elise Stefanik – 3%
Donald Trump Jr. – 2%
Tulsi Gabbard -… pic.twitter.com/rrefVnuzgN— CPAC (@CPAC) February 22, 2025
The straw poll was conducted among more than 1,000 attendees of the conservative conference, which began on Wednesday and concludes on Saturday following President Donald Trump’s scheduled speech. Pollster John McLaughlin noted that the CPAC straw poll has historically reflected conservative sentiment and voting trends, including accurately predicting Trump’s victory in the 2024 primary and general election.
“You know how I knew Donald Trump was going to win the people in this room? Because when we did the CPAC polls over the years, and you had the mainstream media saying, you know, ‘Donald Trump couldn’t win again.’ Donald Trump was winning overwhelmingly, not by a little bit, overwhelmingly in every single CPAC poll. You guys knew he was going to win the primary. You all knew that he was going to win the general election, no matter what the Democrats threw at us,” he said.
This year’s straw poll predominantly centered on Trump’s approval ratings since he took office, with some results indicating his approval at 99% on various issues. “The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency have been the best for the modern conservative movement in my lifetime. What do you think about that?” McLaughlin said of one of the poll questions. “Well, 99% agreed with that. Think about that. We don’t see 99% numbers. But 99% say this is the best … in modern conservative history,” McLaughlin, who was joined on stage by CPAC chair Matt Schlapp on stage to announce the results, added.
According to the poll, 99% of respondents said that rapidly passing Trump’s agenda is important to them, while another 99% believe Trump is performing better in his second administration than in his first. Overall, the poll reported Trump’s job approval rating at 99%. “It’s amazing. I’ve been working as a pollster now … going on four decades. . . . We’ve never seen numbers like this. We’ve never seen anybody unite the conservative movement the way Donald Trump has done this,” McLaughlin added of Trump’s high marks.
