The question on the minds of many conservatives is who will become the next Republican leader after President Donald Trump, who is constitutionally prevented from running again after his current — and second — term.
This week at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event, a straw poll was held to see who attendees wanted to be the next leader, and the results were staggering.
The straw poll, which has been traditionally very accurate in predicting future candidates, showed Vice President JD Vance as the favorite to be the next Republican presidential candidate with 61 percent of the vote.
“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?” McLaughlin & Associates Polls President Jim McLaughlin said to attendees at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland, where the event was held.
“JD Vance. And why? Because he’s viewed as the closest thing to Donald Trump,” he said.
But what may have been even more stunning was that Steve Bannon came in second place with 12 percent of the vote, ahead of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 7 percent.
“The straw poll was conducted among more than 1,000 attendees of the conservative conference, which kicked off on Wednesday and wraps up on Saturday following President Donald Trump’s planned speech,” Fox News reported.
McLaughlin said that the accuracy of the poll in the past was how he knew that President Trump would be president again in 2024.
📊@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
“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,” McLaughlin noted further.
Trump also received high approval marks at the event, hitting 99 percent on some 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. “Well, 99% agreed with that. Think about that. We don’t see 99% numbers.”
“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,” he said.
The attendees who were surveyed also approved of President Trump’s plan to form a strategic alliance with Greenland.
“Ninety-three percent of you approve of that, because it just makes sense for economic reasons, for national security reasons,” McLaughlin said.
“And by the way, we do a little bit of work over in Europe and whatnot. They also think it’s a very good idea. Donald Trump again, being a visionary,” he said.
The final straw poll results showed the following.
JD Vance – 61%.
Steve Bannon – 12%.
Ron DeSantis – 7%.
Marco Rubio – 3%.
Elise Stefanik – 3%.
Donald Trump Jr. – 2%.
Tulsi Gabbard – 2%.
Vivek Ramaswamy – 2%.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders – 1%.
Rick Scott – 1%.
Kristi Noem – 1%.
Nikki Haley – 1%.
Greg Abbott – 0%.
Undecided – 4%.
