What to Know
Erika Kirk, the widow of late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, threw her full support behind Vice President JD Vance for president in 2028. Kirk, the newly minted CEO of Turning Point USA, endorsed the vice president during her opening remarks at the conservative youth organization’s AmericaFest conference on Thursday.
“We are going to get my husband’s friend, JD Vance, elected 48 in the most resounding way possible,” Kirk said to loud applause from the audience in Phoenix.
Her praise for Vance came as she touted Turning Point USA’s efforts in “building the red wall” in Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire — while working to ensure the GOP maintains majority control of Congress during the 2026 midterm elections in order to effectively pass President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Vance has not formally announced that he intends to run for president, though he is the clear front-runner among other Republican figures in early polls. The endorsement from Kirk may be notable down the line due to her husband’s influence on young conservatives.
The vice president also told Fox News last month that he has “thought about what that moment might look like” after next year’s elections. He noted that he will talk to Trump then about the prospect.
“Whenever I think about that, I try to put it out of my head and remind myself the American people elected me to do a job, right now, and my job is to do it,” Vance said. “And if you start getting distracted and focused on what comes next, I think it actually makes you worse at the job you have.”
Trump has previously floated a potential 2028 ticket with Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — all while acknowledging that he is unable to serve a third term under the Constitution, despite his top allies pushing for it.
“I’m not sure if anybody would run against us,” Trump told reporters in October. “I think if they ever formed a group, it would be unstoppable. I really do. I believe that.”
Turning Point USA’s annual event, which runs until Sunday, is the largest meeting of its kind since the shooting of Kirk’s husband, the co-founder, at a Utah college campus in September. It quickly devolved as MAGA infighting over the future of the GOP was on full display — including conservative commentator Ben Shapiro labeling other featured speakers as “frauds and grifters.”
Vance is listed to speak at the conference on its final day.
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