DALLAS — The buzz around Vice President JD Vance was palpable after he delivered a rousing keynote address on the final day of the GOP midterm convention, with many attendees deeming him the clear heir apparent to President Trump.
Vance benefited from the absence of his top speculated 2028 competition, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as President Trump’s decision to deliver his barn-burner two-hour headliner on Day 1. The president only gave a 25-minute closer after Vance — short by Trump’s standards.
While no one was able to electrify the crowded arena of MAGA faithful quite like Trump, Vance was left a clear lane in the limelight on the final day, and the audience ate it up with chants urging him to run in 2028.
“Let’s take care of business this November, then we’ll worry about what comes next,” Vance told the crowd chanting “JD 28,” unable to conceal his smile.
The Ohioan’s style also drew a sharp contrast from Trump. While Trump fired up the crowd with his signature “weave,” in which he freewheels and meanders from the script, Vance largely stuck to his prepared remarks.
One exception to that came when an angry, purple-shirt-wearing protester interrupted his speech, heckling him while waving a Mexican flag.
“Well, my friend, if you love Mexico so much, get your ass over there,” Vance quipped as security hauled the man away.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I had a whole speech written,” the veep continued. “But I think I gotta change it because we just discovered the symbol of the far left: an idiot waving … a Mexican flag at a protest when he should be waving the flag of the United States of America.”
Attendees who spoke with The Post were impressed with how he handled the protester, and walked away convinced he has a presidential aura.
“He didn’t look like some guy who you’re thinking maybe they’re grooming [for the presidency]. He looked tonight like he had become the guy,” Frank McCaffrey, a Texas resident, told The Post. “After the midterms, they’re gonna have to pass the torch to him, and he’s ready for it.
“He’s the next big thing. He is the big thing.”
McCaffrey compared the second night of the convention to a boxing fight where the undercard is just as good — or better — as the main event.
“That was the best and smoothest speech I’ve ever heard him do,” Jim Danner, another Texas attendee, said, praising the VP’s talk about the importance of family. “I was amazed at how jazzed I felt after JD Vance. … That was the first speech I really think from him where I was like, wow, holy smokes.”
Vance also used his speech to extend an olive branch to disaffected conservatives who have been vexed by the war in Iran, urging them against handing “the country over to a bunch of crazy people because you happen to disagree with us on a policy issue.”
The war had splintered elements of the MAGA coalition, including the anti-war, Tucker Carlson-aligned crowd with which Vance has long been friendly.
Trump addressed the fissure in a different way, stressing the risk of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, concluding, “I’m right then — I win.”
One cowboy-hat-wearing attendee told The Post that Rubio was too short to be president, contending that height was important to scare off foreign adversaries. That attendee joked that was why there can’t be a lady president — adding that his wife agreed with him.
“I don’t even know if he was thinking presidential, but it sure as heck was a great speech for everybody, because these people are all fired up,” Illinois Attorney General hopeful Bob Fioretti told The Post.
Rhonda Bellfort, a National Committeewoman from Illinois, gushed that Vance “knocked it out of the ballpark.”
“He’s been auditioning since day one,” she said. “And he rocked it just like you should. He spoke truth.”
Vance has long been the speculated 2028 frontrunner on the GOP side in most polling, though he has long noted that he won’t make a decision on whether to run until after the midterms.
Trump has similarly said it’s too early to weigh in on who should be his heir, though he has surveyed people on who would be better: Vance or Rubio.
