Vice President JD Vance was greeted with chants of “48” from Republican delegates during a closed-door breakfast Thursday in Dallas, a chorus referencing his potential status as the nation’s 48th president and underscoring the party’s growing appetite for a 2028 Vance candidacy even as the sitting vice president has repeatedly declined to address his political future.
The chants broke out during remarks Vance delivered ahead of his scheduled address to the Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention Thursday night, according to four people in the room granted anonymity to describe the closed-door event. Vance did not engage with the 2028 speculation and kept his remarks focused on the November midterms, according to the people present.
“We’ve got to nationalize this election, we’ve got to talk about all the crazy things Democrats are doing,” Vance told the gathered delegates, according to audio obtained by Politico.
Vance framed the 2026 midterms as a stark choice between what he described as commonsense Republicans and the “crazy people” on the left, continuing a message President Donald Trump had laid out the previous day. He warned attendees that a Democratic takeover of Congress would erase the party’s tax cuts and other economic achievements, and cautioned that Democratic control would “bury the American people in investigations and bullshit for the next two years.”
The breakfast drew Republican lawmakers, state party officials and convention attendees from Vance’s home state of Ohio, along with delegations from Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all considered pivotal battleground states heading into the midterm elections.
Vance’s Political Future Draws Attention Despite Midterm Focus
The vice president has so far declined to say whether he intends to seek the presidency in 2028, and his Thursday remarks made no mention of the race or his own political plans. Even so, his future has become a persistent undercurrent at the two-day Dallas convention, where the party’s official focus has centered on retaining control of the House and Senate this November.
Vance is scheduled to deliver a major convention address Thursday night, with Trump set to close out the gathering with remarks of his own. The event marked the Republican Party’s first midterm-specific convention, a new format that also featured Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt as keynote speakers.
Trump’s $5,000 Dividend Proposal Looms Over Convention
Vance’s Thursday remarks came a day after Trump used his own convention speech to propose a $5,000 dividend payment to every American adult, contingent on Republicans retaining control of both chambers of Congress in November. The proposal would require congressional approval and has been estimated to cost more than $1 trillion.
Vance did not raise the dividend proposal during the closed-door breakfast, but he defended the idea a night earlier during a Fox News appearance, suggesting the payments could be structured with income limits attached. The proposal has already drawn criticism from Democratic lawmakers, who characterized it as an election-year gimmick ahead of the vice president’s and president’s convention speeches.
Convention Marks Break From Past Republican Gatherings
The Dallas gathering represented a departure from traditional Republican National Convention scheduling, convening specifically around the midterm elections rather than a presidential nominating contest. Senate Majority Leader John Thune was among the notable Republican leaders in attendance who did not deliver a speech.
The convention also featured an unexpected moment Wednesday when a video of Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania played for the audience, in which Fetterman praised Republican Sen. Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and pledged to work with the Trump administration’s agenda on supporting the state’s steel industry. The appearance was widely regarded as one of Fetterman’s most pointed departures yet from Democratic Party messaging.
Betting Markets Show Vance as Early 2028 Frontrunner
The chants in Dallas coincided with prediction market data showing Vance as the current favorite in the 2028 presidential race. On Polymarket’s “Presidential Election Winner 2028” market, Vance leads all candidates with a 24.3 percent probability as of Thursday, with more than $700 million traded on the contract. Vance’s position reflects his standing as sitting vice president and his early positioning among Republican primary voters.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez followed at 13.3 percent and Jon Ossoff at 11.9 percent, figures that traders have attributed to fragmentation within the Democratic field heading into the 2026 midterms. In a separate Polymarket contract tracking the Republican presidential nomination specifically, Vance is trading at 50.3 percent, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio trailing at roughly 19 percent.
Democrats Push Back on Republican Midterm Strategy
Vance’s call to “nationalize” the midterms mirrors a broader Republican strategy of framing the November elections as a referendum on national Democratic positions rather than local candidates and issues, a tactic Trump previewed in his own remarks to the convention a day earlier. Democratic lawmakers have criticized both the dividend proposal and the broader Republican midterm messaging as the two parties sharpen their contrasting pitches to voters ahead of the November 3 election.
The convention’s dual focus — official messaging on the midterms paired with unofficial buzz over Vance’s future — illustrates the balancing act facing the vice president as he navigates a role as the administration’s chief midterm surrogate while fielding growing signals of support for a future presidential bid of his own.