Vance looks to 2028 and asks Republicans not to "throw it all overboard" because of Trump's decisions

WashingtonIn November 2028, and not in November 2026. This is where Vice President J.D. Vance had his sights set this Friday morning. His closing speech at the Dallas convention confirmed what was already suspected: that the Texas event would be more of a personal matter than a party one. If the American president on Thursday turned the midterm elections into a referendum on himself –his popularity is currently at a low point–, Vance took the opportunity to talk about his own book. Specifically, about his potential presidential candidacy two years from now.

The Vice President used the recent birth of his son to pivot much of his speech toward what kind of future he wants for the child. "And that I also want for your children," Vance said, addressing the audience at the American Airlines Center. References to the midterm elections were not lacking, as expected, but in very specific doses and framed from a particular angle: the threat of the rise of the furthest-left bloc within the Democratic Party. Not only because many of their candidates, if they win, could break Trump's monopoly on Congress, but also because they have the potential to anchor the axes from which the presidential race will be built. Not for nothing, for the first time, betting markets have gotten excited about the possibility that Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez –one of the faces of the more progressive sector– could compete for the presidential nomination in 2028.

The attacks against candidates from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other progressive Democrats not linked to them, such as Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan or James Talarico in Texas, also pointed to this horizon: the post-Trump United States: "This fall, the Democrats are presenting candidates who will tell your children what they can say, how they can live, and, above all, who they should hate. Because the Democratic Party in 2026 is about that. [...] We must send a message this November: the country does not belong to the radicals." Vance, who has also recycled the 2024 attacks against Joe Biden, now paints the Democratic establishment as the lesser evil: "Primary after primary, we have seen the few reasonable Democrats left losing to extremists who hate our nation."

The strength of the left

By focusing his attacks against this sector, Vance has implicitly acknowledged that the wave of left-wing sentiment within the Democratic Party is a real force. Now that he is part of the ecosystem that grows in the halls of Washington, he sees how these new candidates advance on the back of the same anti-establishment sentiment that Trump used to come to power. They do so from the other end of the political spectrum and with a radically different agenda, but with the promise of change before a citizenry that is tired of seeing how life becomes more difficult with each passing day. The progressive bloc is building an alternative future, with a discourse that manages to escape the framework that the Republican had imposed.

Vance climbed onto the ticket of the 2024 presidential race clinging to his working-class origins and wearing the redneck label with pride. Although his thesis had some gaps –he studied at Yale and moved with the cream of the crop of Silicon Valley–, he can no longer play that card. He is part of the ecosystem that grows in the halls of Washington and that he promised so much to destroy. Added to all this is a flagrant contradiction: the Iran war. The vice president has avoided mentioning the military campaign in the Middle East during the speech, aware that it could be the tomb of his presidential aspirations.

Two years ago, in Milwaukee, the vice president solidified himself as the face of the isolationist sector of Trumpism and opposed to the US getting involved in foreign conflicts. Now it is his turn to lead the failed diplomatic efforts to put an end to a war that is increasingly unpopular among Americans and that has caused a seismic shift within the MAGA movement. Vance is aware of this, and that is why he has made an effort to remind the conservative world that he is not the Trump administration. "What I am asking you is to do what Charlie did: don't throw it all overboard. No, don't leave the country in the hands of a bunch of crazy people just because it turns out you don't agree with us on one political issue or another," Vance has requested, referring to the influencer of the far right Charlie Kirk, who died a year ago.

Trump makes his followers swear that they will cheat

The other issue on which Vance has avoided commenting is the $5,000 dividend that Trump promised early Thursday morning for all American adults if the Republicans won the midterm elections. Beyond the dubious legality of the proposal –federal law explicitly prohibits paying to register as a voter or to vote– and the probable unfeasibility –the final word rests with Congress–, some members of the Republican Party have already shown their opposition to the idea due to the impact such an action would have on the country's high public debt. Last August, the Treasury Department announced that the public debt had climbed to 40 trillion dollars.

Unfazed by the controversy, Trump insisted on this promise during his second consecutive speech at the convention. The president, who although he exceeded the planned 15 minutes was much more concise in his speech, concluded the event with a disturbing scene: he modified the pledge of allegiance and made his followers promise that this November they will go to vote "at any cost." "It doesn't matter if I am registered on the electoral roll or not. I will try. And I will cheat big time, just like they do," the leader chanted, and the audience repeated it word for word. And he added: "Do you know what will happen if you don't vote? That you will go to hell.".