By Nathan Layne
GRAPEVINE, Texas, March 28 (Reuters) – Vice President JD Vance was the Conservative Political Action Conference’s choice this year to be the next Republican nominee for U.S. president, according to a straw poll released on Saturday.
About 53% of the more than 1,600 attendees who voted in the poll chose Vance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio came in second with 35% at CPAC, a key annual gathering for Republican lawmakers, activists and presidential hopefuls.
CPAC, which is holding this year’s event in Grapevine, Texas, draws heavily from the Republican Party’s conservative wing. Its annual straw poll is not necessarily a reliable predictor of the eventual nominee.
But the poll offers a snapshot of where the energy currently lies among core supporters of President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, also known as MAGA. Trump, currently serving his second term, is not eligible to run again in 2028.
Paul Empson, a 58-year-old accountant and evangelical Christian from Fort Worth, Texas, said he voted for Vance because he sees him as aligned with the MAGA movement and was drawn to the vice president’s frequent references to the Christian faith.
“I wasn’t real sure about him at first, you know, like he’s inexperienced, but I’ve seen everything he’s done,” Empson told Reuters. “He’s a real, genuine person, and he’s also willing to proclaim his faith in Jesus Christ in public.”
At last year’s CPAC meeting in Oxon Hill, Maryland, Vance led the straw poll with 61% of the vote, followed by Steve Bannon, a conservative podcaster and Trump adviser during his first term, at 12%, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 7%.
Rubio, who captured just 3% of the vote last year, has risen in prominence as he plays a visible role in high-stakes foreign policy, including work related to the administration’s actions in Venezuela and Iran.
No other contender in the poll other than Vance or Rubio received more than 2% of the vote.
Several CPAC attendees told Reuters they would like to see Vance and Rubio on the ticket together.
James Schaare, 61, said he liked both men but was leaning toward Rubio. He said Rubio won him over in part through his speech at the memorial for Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist who was fatally shot in September.
“Over the last couple of years, everything he says and does is 100% conservative,” said Schaare, a political activist from Euless, Texas. “And at the Charlie Kirk memorial, he sounded like a pastor preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Schaare also said he thought Rubio has done a “phenemonal” job as Secretary of State.
Carol Kurpiel, 79, who traveled to CPAC from the Atlanta area, also said she liked Rubio as the 2028 nominee.
“He’s strong. He’s to the point. He works like Trump: go, go, go, go,” Kurpiel said. “I like the strength I see in him. I like the way he presents himself when he speaks to the people.”
(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Grapevine, Texas; Editing by Sergio Non, David Gregorio and Chizu Nomiyama)
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