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Republicans and Republican-leaning independents want Marco Rubio, not Ron DeSantis, as JD Vance‘s 2028 running mate, a new exclusive Daily Mail/YouGov poll reveals.
The Secretary of State leads the field with 33 percent, a crushing 20 points ahead of the Florida governor, who takes just 13 percent.
Among self-described MAGA supporters, Rubio’s lead is even bigger: 45 percent want him on the ticket. Among those who are registered and say they will definitely vote, he takes 41 percent.
But Rubio is far from a lock. Just as many respondents, 34 percent, said they weren’t sure who Vance should pick.
The rest of the field barely registered. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley drew five percent, while South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy tied on three percent each.
Asked who they expect Vance to actually choose, all Americans surveyed again put Rubio first on 22 percent, with DeSantis a distant second on eight percent.
More than half, 55 percent, were unsure.
Vance has not yet announced a 2028 bid.
DeSantis was once hailed as Donald Trump’s natural heir, before his own 2024 White House run collapsed. His second term as governor ends in January, leaving him free to plot his next move.
It’s unclear if he’d mount a challenge to Vance.
The running mate question was asked of 385 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, part of a YouGov survey of 1,053 US adult citizens conducted October 2–5. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.
DeSantis, however, has spent years insisting he is nobody’s understudy.
‘I’m not a No. 2 guy. I think I’m a leader,’ he told the Wisconsin Right Now podcast in July 2023, while battling Trump for the Republican nomination.
The vice presidency, he scoffed, ‘doesn’t really have any authority.’
Months earlier, asked by Newsmax whether he would consider being Trump’s running mate, he said he was ‘probably more of an executive guy.’
And in November 2023 he was blunter still: ‘The only tickets that are in the future are with DeSantis at the top.’
Yet within weeks of that boast, his campaign was over. He quit the race in January 2024 and endorsed Trump.
In January 2024, asked about joining Haley on a ticket, DeSantis said he would not take the job ‘under any circumstances.’ He would ‘much rather do my final two years as governor than be vice president,’ he added.
Days later he quit the race and endorsed Trump. Even then, he batted away talk of becoming Trump’s running mate. ‘I’m not doing that,’ he told supporters.
Haley was just as dismissive. ‘I don’t want to be anybody’s vice president. That is off the table,’ she declared that same month, while still battling Trump for the nomination.
Tim Scott once sounded equally defiant. ‘I did not enter this race to come in second place. Second place is the first loser,’ he told Fox News during his 2023 White House run.
By June 2024 he had softened, calling the prospect of being Trump’s running mate a ‘great honor.’
For now, Scott appears focused on the Senate. His campaign confirmed in March 2026 that he will seek re-election in 2028.
Vance insists his focus is on next month’s midterms, not the White House.
‘I’m inherently a procrastinator. I really haven’t thought about it much,’ he told Reuters at a campaign stop in Alaska last week.
But Republicans are already lining up behind him. In September, Indiana Senator Jim Banks became the first sitting senator to endorse him.
And Vance has begun sniping at potential rivals, recently accusing Texas Senator Ted Cruz of already running for president.
Rubio has stayed coy about his own ambitions, refusing to rule out another run.
Asked in May whether he wanted to be vice president, he said: ‘I want to be the Secretary of State, and I’ll worry about the future in the future.’
But he has publicly backed Vance, vowing to be the first to support his friend if he runs.
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