For perspective, JD Vance got way closer to saying he's NOT running for President here than Kamala Harris has gotten in any of her obnoxious interviews...
I'm not saying he won't run, and neither is he, but he definitely gave me reason to not be surprised if he doesn't run.
The reasons he gave for reluctance are understandable, but there are also more political reasons why he might find himself between a rock and a hard place if he chooses to run. He's already finding himself in the middle of a tug-of-war between the MAGA base and the Tucker-aligned dissenters. If JD runs for President, he's going to run into some tough questions, and I'm just not sure so he's popular enough or likable enough to hold the White House at this point, even against someone on the Left who's as unbearable as Kamala (or whoever the Democrat nominee ends up being this time).
Maybe JD doesn't want to further jeopardize friendships with the Tucker-types (who he refuses to dissociate from even now). Maybe he suspects Marco Rubio will run, and fears he can't compete with him. I mean, Marco remains difficult for anyone to dislike, while JD is becoming increasingly difficult for anyone to like.
[BTW, I don't personally dislike him, and in fact I feel like he's often more personable than most politicians, but I don't think he has earned enough respect on the world stage to be an effective world leader...yet...]
Only time will tell though, and some announcements may depend upon the outcome of the midterms.
I'm hoping for a full field of candidates across the board in 2028, and I'm hoping they'll force each other to precisely state their policy positions, especially on the Right, because Trump will no longer be in charge of the Republican party and it's a bit of a mystery how much of his movement prospective candidates are going to maintain for the momentum of their own campaigns.
Consider when Kamala was asked what she would've done different than the Biden Administration and completely botched the answer by blanking on it. Well, at some point, if JD runs for President, that same sort of question is going to come for him, and he's not going to get nearly as much special treatment in the media as Kamala got. They may not have liked her, but they're going to find any and every reason to hate him. Plus, lately he's not doing himself many favors, by defending his friendships with people who wish to see his own boss impeached, and by riding the rhetorical fence on nearly every pressing foreign policy matter.
I get it, he's in a difficult position, when it comes to clarifying his own positions, but it's only going to get more difficult moving forward if he doesn't take a big step back at the end of the day.
Vice President JD Vance said there’s “of course” a chance he won’t run for president in 2028, pointing to his four young children and his wife’s feelings about politics. Vance said he plans to make a decision after the midterm elections.