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With the conclusion of CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) on Saturday, the attendees made their choice for the 2028 Republican presidential nominee overwhelmingly clear in the event’s straw poll.
Among a group of 13 hypothetical Republican candidates, 61 percent of CPAC attendees stated Vice President JD Vance would be their party’s nominee in 2028, and President Donald Trump’s successor.
In second place, former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon received 12 percent, followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with seven percent.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and United Nations ambassador nominee Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., both received three percent, while Donald Trump Jr., National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy each took two percent.
Meanwhile, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, R-Ark., Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, the former UN Ambassor Nikki Haley, and Gov. Greg Abbot, R-Texas, garnered one percent.
CPAC’s straw poll of 1,022 attendees was conducted by Jim McLaughlin, who noted his polls have accurately forecasted Republicans’ voting trends in previous presidential races, including the 2024 primaries and general election.
“You know how I knew Donald Trump was going to win the people in this room?” McLaughlin said. “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.
He concluded, “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.”