JD Vance Sees Eric Schmitt as ‘Trustworthy, Intelligent, Articulate’ Amid 2028 Vice President Buzz

The next presidential race is still years away, but the conversation about who could share a ticket with Vice President JD Vance is already underway.

Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt has emerged as a leading contender to be Vance’s running mate in a potential 2028 campaign, according to a report from Axios, published Tuesday, September 29.

According to the outlet, Vance, 42, views Schmitt, 51, “as trustworthy, intelligent, articulate and a deft political operator.”

Vance has not formally announced a 2028 bid.

Schmitt served as Missouri’s attorney general before winning his Senate seat in 2022. The former Senate colleagues are now working together to crack down on fraud in federal programs, including COVID-19 relief and healthcare, with Vance serving as the White House Fraud Czar, the Daily Mail reported.

After a White House anti-fraud task force meeting earlier this year, Schmitt praised his former colleague in a media release.

“Vice President Vance has done an incredible job cracking down on fraud and exposing rampant waste, fraud, and abuse of our federal programs,” he said, per the report. “In the Senate, I am proud to lead the Anti-Fraud Task Force to work alongside this Administration to strengthen federal oversight and hold criminals accountable so we can ensure federal programs actually help Americans in need.”

Schmitt’s name is surfacing even as President Donald Trump has repeatedly floated Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio running together in 2028, without saying which should top the ticket, per the Daily Mail.

Rubio, 55, has downplayed the chatter.

“I’m not a candidate for anything right now,” he told Colombian broadcaster RCN earlier this month, the outlet reported.

Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz wrote on X, “I would support any ambition of Senator Schmitt.”

Mike Howell, president of the conservative legal group the Oversight Project, called Schmitt a “rockstar” in his own post on X.

A longtime former Senate GOP aide said, per the Daily Mail, that “the allure of the VP nominee is often times not what they bring to the table but what they don’t do for the ticket,” adding, “you don’t want headaches.”

Conservative communications strategist Dan Rene offered a reality check, saying, per the outlet, that “it is way too early to be picking a VP but never too early to have fun speculating.”

Any decision is likely still a long way off. Candidates usually launch their White House bids in the year before the election, and vice presidential picks traditionally aren’t revealed until the summer of the election year, shortly before the party convention. Trump, 80, named Vance as his running mate in July 2024.