Vice President JD Vance said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is already acting like a 2028 presidential candidate, even while Vance presents himself as focused on the midterm fight in front of Republicans this fall.
The swipe came after NBC News pressed Vance on whether November’s results would factor into any decision about seeking the White House himself.
“It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president,” Vance told NBC News.
“At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing,” Vance added.
Cruz has not entered the 2028 race, but he told MS NOW that Vance should not be treated as the inevitable Republican nominee and that he wants to “certainly be part of the discussion.”
He also described the next GOP fight as a battle over whether the party remains a “small-government, free-market conservative party” or becomes a “big-government, nanny state party.”
Cruz’s team rejected the idea that his current travel is about 2028. A spokesperson told NBC News the Texas senator is working to help Republicans win the midterms and plans to continue campaigning for GOP candidates in the weeks ahead.
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His calendar has still taken him into places that matter in presidential politics. Although his Senate term runs through 2030, Cruz has been fundraising for Republicans in battleground territory and early nominating states, including Iowa and South Carolina.
Vance served alongside Cruz in the Senate before President Donald Trump chose him as his running mate.
Cruz, meanwhile, has already run once against Trump, emerging as his toughest Republican opponent in 2016 and staying in the race until Trump had 45 percent of Republican backing to Cruz’s 25 percent.
Vance has kept his own 2028 answer deliberately open. Asked if the midterms could change his calculations, he described the next 35 days as a source of new data rather than a trigger for an announcement.
“You make these decisions by collecting as much information and trying to make a wise decision,” Vance said. “And yeah, I mean, regardless of what happens over the next 35 days, there will be new information, new things you have to make a decision over.”
When NBC News asked whether GOP losses would matter to his decision, Vance again avoided saying how he would weigh that outcome.
“The American people make that decision, and when they do, then yeah, I’ll have some new information to consider,” Vance said.
For the moment, Vance is presenting himself as a party workhorse on the trail, not an announced contender for the next open Republican presidential contest.
“Historically there’s always a bit of an uphill climb, and I think you definitely sense that,” Vance told NBC News. “I also think you can sense a sense of cautious optimism, in the sense that, you know, people feel like the numbers are sort of moving, maybe in our direction.”
His schedule includes a Monday rally in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the Trump 47 Committee, tied to Trump’s Save America PAC and the Republican National Committee, is hosting a midterm event.
The trip sends Vance into a state Republicans are trying to keep in their column as Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) faces Democrat Mary Peltola (D-AK).
Peltola, who lost Alaska’s at-large House seat to Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) in 2024, has run as a moderate with an Alaska-first pitch, giving Democrats hope in a state Trump carried in all three of his presidential campaigns.
Vance has also appeared in Florida, where some Republican races have become tougher than GOP officials once expected.
“I have the easiest job in the world,” Vance told a crowd in Lakeland. “I get to talk about how crazy the Democrats are.”
Trump is also touring for Republicans, hitting Texas, Oklahoma and Alabama before a planned Nebraska visit Monday.
At a Denton truck facility northwest of Dallas, Trump insisted his party was heading toward victories and dismissed the idea that he was only half-heartedly working the midterms.
“I think we’re going to win. Every place I’ve gone, we win,” Trump said.
“My heart is in it like never before,” Trump said of the midterm push.
The president also acknowledged that Republicans may not be selling his record effectively enough to voters.
“Maybe we’re doing a bad job selling it,” Trump said in Texas.
Trump said inflation was real but blamed Biden, who left office more than two years ago, while arguing that his own administration was bringing prices down as Democrats leaned on affordability attacks.
“I think inflation is very real, but they’re the ones that caused the inflation,” Trump said. “I’m the one that’s bringing it down, and we have to be able to get that word out somehow because they’re using the word affordability.”
The Texas appearance also put Trump near state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX), who is running for Senate against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico (D-TX) in a contest where Republicans are spending heavily.
Paxton was at the Denton event, though Trump kept him offstage.
Trump joked that Paxton “could be a pain in the ass sometimes” before adding, “We need Ken so badly, and that’s why I’m here.”
In Oklahoma, Trump appeared with Republican Mike Mazzei (R-OK), who is running for governor against Democratic state House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson (D-OK).
The event took place on the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, making Trump one of only a small number of sitting presidents to visit tribal nations.
Trump also acknowledged former NBA star Dennis Rodman, who traveled with him, calling him a longtime friend and noting Rodman’s relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
