Politics

‘The Kamala Harris problem’: Vance’s 2028 hopes hinge on Trump, Iowa Republicans say

Published

4 months ago

May 6, 2026

DES MOINES, Iowa — Vice President JD Vance was greeted warmly by Republicans in Iowa on Tuesday, with would-be caucus goers and strategists optimistically curious about his potential as a 2028 presidential contender.

But first, they’re hoping he can help turn the economy around.

Vance’s fate is unavoidably linked to President Donald Trump’s. He’ll either carry the mantle of Trump’s accomplishments all the way into his own term in the White House — or be dragged down by Trump’s dismal approval ratings, which have spiraled amid an unpopular war in Iran and voters’ economic pessimism.

During Vance’s first trip as vice president to the early caucus state — where he was campaigning for Republican Rep. Zach Nunn at a rally in a manufacturing warehouse in this battleground House district — Vance’s close ties with Trump were on full display. He credited the president repeatedly for tariffs, tax cuts and agriculture industry aid. And he avoided any mention of 2028.

But his association with Trump’s agenda presents a high-risk, high-reward proposition that could make or break his political future, operatives and rallygoers said.

“That’s the risk of being part of an administration,” Iowa GOP strategist David Kochel said. “This is the Kamala Harris problem.”

Rep. Randy Feenstra, who is running for governor, said in between shaking hands with attendees that Iowans “absolutely” associate Vance with Trump and expressed confidence that the White House can deliver outcomes that benefit the state.

“We’re all in this together,” he said. “We trust Trump and the vice president and what they’re doing, and things are going to be great.”

Republicans in Iowa are loath to turn their back on Trump, the 2024 caucus winner who remains deeply popular among the base. Faded Trump-Vance campaign signs still line the rural roads around the state, and Iowa Republicans said they remained largely optimistic that Trump, with Vance by his side, can steer the economy in the right direction.

In a brief post-rally interview, Nunn said part of the benefit of the vice president’s trip was allowing Iowa Republican officials to “share what they want to see out of the next leader in 2028.”

But Americans’ patience for the administration’s economic policy to have a positive effect is wearing thin. A Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll released on Sunday found 65 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy and 76 percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of cost of living issues. And even as Vance blamed former President Joe Biden’s administration for the teetering economy, an April POLITICO Poll found 46 percent of Americans feel Trump bears at least some responsibility for the state of the economy.

And the economic effects of Trump’s policies are particularly hard felt in Iowa’s vast agriculture industry. Trump’s tariff regime blocked off markets that had been reliable purchasers of U.S. agriculture goods, while the war in Iran has spiked the cost of diesel, which farmers depend on heavily.

Jake Chapman, a former president of the Iowa Senate who has advised multiple Republican presidential candidates in Iowa, said the conflict and the trade negotiations with other countries are top of mind for Iowa Republicans.

“A lot of people are thinking about foreign policy in particular, and how that impacts ag inputs and our agriculture economy,” he said.

In his speech, Vance acknowledged that the Trump administration hasn’t fully delivered on its economic promises. “We got a lot more work to do,” Vance told the crowd of hundreds. “We recognize that work. We’re excited about that work. That’s why you sent us to Washington, D.C.”

Still, those negative feelings towards Trump appear to be spilling over to Vance. That same poll found 48 percent of Americans disapprove of Vance — slightly worse than other senior Trump administration officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and fellow potential 2028 candidate Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Rubio’s ascension in the 2028 shadow primary — both in the eyes of Americans and in standing with Trump’s inner circle — further complicates Vance’s path to the nomination. Eric Branstad, the son of former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and adviser to Trump’s three presidential campaigns in Iowa, said Vance’s portfolio may not resonate with Iowans as much as Rubio’s in an administration juggling multiple high-profile foreign conflicts.

“They’ve watched the secretary of state completely perform. He’s been put in all of the tough spots, and he has overperformed,” Branstad said. “The vice president is performing great. It’s just not been as noticeable as the secretary of state.”

Vance, however, has gotten an early start on building a campaign infrastructure, should he so choose to activate it. He has been a frequent surrogate and fundraiser for the GOP’s midterm operation and has campaigned for Republicans in battleground seats around the country. On Tuesday, he voted in Ohio’s competitive 1st District GOP primary and headlined a fundraiser in Oklahoma before travelling to Iowa.

“He’s the man who’s leading the charge to win the midterms,” Nunn said during his remarks.

Even as Vance stayed focused on this year’s elections on Tuesday, some Republicans are ready to look beyond the midterms. GOP gubernatorial candidate Adam Steen said on the outskirts of the rally he thinks Iowa Republicans are eager to organize around the next generation of party leadership.

“I don’t know why not just start talking about 2028,” Steen said. “We need to know who we’re going to be getting behind. And if they did that now, I don’t think it’d offend anybody. I think it’d be a great thing.”

The vice president’s office declined to comment on Vance’s thinking about a future presidential campaign.

Whether or not the vice president can carry the ideological torch for Trump’s political movement may depend on how closely Vance — or any 2028 hopeful — can align with Trump. Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann said at the rally he doesn’t believe the next Republican presidential nominee necessarily has to appeal directly to Trump’s base to be successful.

“The Republican Party is multifaceted,” Kaufmann said. “We have MAGA voters… We have Christian evangelicals, we have business, we have Libertarians. I think all of them together are going to unite around some of the basic principles that everybody shares.”

Yet being Trump’s vice president brings certain advantages with Republican voters. Even if Vance isn’t afforded the goodwill that brought the president a dominant wire-to-wire favorite in the 2024 Republican primaries, Kochel said Vance “gets one of the gold tickets” in the contest.

“[Vance] will be the front-runner going into any caucuses that we have here in Iowa,” GOP governor candidate and state Rep. Eddie Andrews said on the sidelines of Tuesday’s rally.

But Iowa caucusgoers are notoriously scrupulous when vetting future world leaders. And Nunn acknowledged that Vance will at some point need to forge his own path to leading the party.

“Nobody can walk in Donald Trump’s footsteps, because it’s Donald Trump,” Nunn said.

Politics

Kamala Harris to campaign with Ossoff in Georgia

Published

3 hours ago

September 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Kamala Harris will campaign with Sen. Jon Ossoff in Georgia and headline a fundraising dinner hosted by Fulton County Democrats next month, marking her latest involvement in the midterm elections.

Harris is also slated to join Nevada attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Aaron Ford next month in Las Vegas and campaign with Democratic challengers in two competitive House races in her home state.

“It is critical for Democrats to win this November so we can fight the Trump administration’s corruption and work to lower costs for the American people,” a Harris spokesperson said in a statement. “Vice President Harris will continue to do whatever is needed to support candidates in races where she can be helpful.”

The events in Georgia were first reported by CNN. Harris will also be the keynote speaker at the fundraising dinner on Oct. 30 in Atlanta. An Ossoff campaign spokesperson confirmed his plan to campaign with Harris. Ossoff’s campaign previously told Blue Light News that it would welcome Harris to Georgia to stump with or on behalf of the senator.

Still, the announcements come as some Democrats have been keeping distance from the party’s last presidential nominee.

In Iowa, where Democrats are hoping to flip a Senate seat and retake the governor’s mansion in a state where Harris lost by 13 points in 2024, the two candidates both declined to have Harris’ help. So did Mary Peltola, the Democratic Senate candidate in Alaska who “isn’t seeking endorsements from anyone from the Lower 48,” and House candidates in some red states and rural districts.

For her part, Harris has skirted the question of whether she will run again in 2028 and said she is focusing on the midterm elections.

“Right now midterms [are] full-time occupying my thoughts, my mind and my work,” Harris said in a recent podcast episode with Megan Rapinoe on Vox Media. “I’m spending full time working on doing everything I can to help people restore some balance in our government, which is through the midterms, winning back Congress, the House and the Senate.”

“I haven’t decided. But honestly, from my perspective, ’28 doesn’t matter if we don’t win ’26,” she said to a question on another presidential bid.

Politics

Why so many incumbents lost primaries this year

Published

12 hours ago

September 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

It’s been a bad year to be an incumbent.

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee’s ouster on Wednesday, the first primary defeat for an incumbent governor in eight years, caps off a primary season that’s seen longtime leaders fall across the map and politicians across both parties struggle to make the leap to higher office.

Thirteen members of Congress have lost their reelection bids: seven Democrats and six Republicans, including two GOP senators. At least 16 more who were trying to move from the House to the Senate or take on statewide office have lost primaries: nine Republicans and seven Democrats, including Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet who unsuccessfully ran for governor.

The upheaval has been driven by a confluence of factors that will continue to dog incumbents through November. Voters are frustrated with both parties’ leadership in Washington. President Donald Trump has targeted some GOP foes as he looks to cement his legacy; Democrats are in the midst of pitched generational and ideological battles. Some members in both parties faced daunting new district lines. Others faced scandals that sank them.

In some races, those factors converged. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) didn’t benefit much from her years in Washington in her Senate bid — and lost her primary to a left-flank rival who yoked her to the party establishment.

Caitlin Legacki, who advised Stevens’ bid, said incumbents’ losses this year show voters are simply fed up.

“It speaks to the high level of dissatisfaction that voters have with everyone,” said Legacki, who noted the anti-incumbent climate contributed to Stevens’ loss. “It’s a major ‘throw the bums out’ moment.”

DEMS KICK INCUMBENTS TO THE CURB

Democrats disillusioned with their leadership in Washington are taking it out on the party’s rank and file.

Progressives picked off more-moderate House members from New York to Colorado. Younger challengers ousted older incumbents from Texas to Connecticut. Local elected officials outran Washington incumbents. And voters have spurned lawmakers seeking higher office from Michigan to Minnesota.

Sometimes age was the biggest factor, sometimes it was ideology and sometimes both played a role. Democratic socialists defeated decades-older Reps. Diana DeGette of Colorado and Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York. Former Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin relied on generational change to topple longtime Rep. John Larson in Connecticut.

THE TRUMP FACTOR

For Republicans, Trump played a major role in directing voters against his longstanding Washington foes.

Trump-backed challengers wiped MAGA irritants Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) off the map. And the president’s late-stage endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Senate runoff helped sink Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).

REDISTRICTING RIPPLE EFFECTS

The unusual mid-decade gerrymandering war took out members of both parties, who lost competitive races in less favorable districts, ran for other offices or switched parties to avoid similar fates.

Texas Democratic Rep. Al Green was ousted by Rep. Christian Menefee in a member-on-member primary forced by gerrymandering that played on their generational divide.

Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson lost her redrawn Dallas-area district to former Rep. Colin Allred, while Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s right-flank challenger leveraged the redraw (as well as some of Crenshaw’s breaks with Trump) to oust the Republican.

Others chose to retire rather than keep fighting uphill battles. Democratic Reps. Steve Cohen of Tennessee (who had already been facing a generational primary challenge before the redraw), Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Cleo Fields of Louisiana hung it up after Republicans dismantled their districts. So did GOP Reps. Darrell Issa of California and Burgess Owens of Utah after their districts were redrawn. California Rep. Kevin Kiley, who opposed the mid-decade gerrymanders and switched from GOP to independent after his district was redrawn, said the new maps have unleashed “chaos” on the House and “reduced the quality of representation in Congress.”

SWEPT OUT BY SCANDAL

Call it the midterms of controversy: Incumbents in both parties have succumbed to the political pressures of their scandals this year.

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell ended his run for California governor and exited Congress amid sexual assault and misconduct allegations. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) dropped his reelection bid and resigned after admitting to having an affair with a staffer who later killed herself.

Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles, despite his Trump endorsement, couldn’t overcome his past controversies, a newly redrawn district and outside spending. Republican Florida Rep. Cory Mills faced attacks over probes of his conduct from primary winner Ryan Elijah. Elijah told Blue Light News this week that he believed Mills’ controversies collided with voters’ anti-incumbent angst.

“We ran on our merits, but trust was a factor,” Elijah said. “I think trust was the biggest factor.”

HIGHER OFFICE FLAMEOUTS

Several congressional Democrats struggled to outmatch opponents without Washington ties in Senate primaries. Bennet, Stevens and Reps. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) all lost statewide primaries to rivals who hadn’t served in D.C.

Voters haven’t been kind to GOP representatives seeking higher office either. Reps. Randy Feenstra of Iowa, Dusty Johnson of South Dakota and Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman of South Carolina all lost their gubernatorial bids. Voters rejected Norman twice: He also lost the snap primary for Lindsey Graham’s seat to the late senator’s sister — a total political newcomer. Texas Rep. Chip Roy also lost a runoff for state attorney general.

Politics

Dan McKee becomes first governor in 8 years to lose primary

Published

21 hours ago

September 10, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Dan McKee became the first governor in eight years in the U.S. to lose a primary, falling on Wednesday to former CVS executive Helena Foulkes and becoming the latest victim of a rough year for incumbents.

McKee’s campaign was bogged down by the botched handling of a years-long project to rebuild the Washington Bridge, which transports more than 70,000 drivers through Providence each day. The project has suffered from delays, cost overruns and disputes between state officials and former contractors that have raised questions about transparency and accountability for the project.

Foulkes spent much of the primary hammering McKee over his handling of the bridge project — a strategy that ultimately proved successful.

McKee had partially closed the bridge in 2023, and estimated at the time that it would fully reopen this summer. But last year, he said the bridge likely won’t be completed until 2028. Construction began in June.

Throughout his campaign, McKee continued to insist that the bridge project was handled well. He told The New York Times in August that “people are going to realize we did the right thing.”

The last incumbent governor to lose a primary was Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer in 2018. McKee’s loss Wednesday adds to the substantial list of Democratic incumbents ousted in primary challenges, though this race didn’t feature the same generational and ideological contrasts as other primaries that have felled Democrats this cycle. Foulkes and McKee, both baby boomers, both ran center-left campaigns.

Foulkes’ victory adds a chapter to her family’s long political lineage. Her grandfather, Thomas J. Dodd, and her uncle, Chris Dodd, were both senators from Connecticut. She worked as an executive at CVS for over 25 years before launching a 2022 run for governor.

McKee won that round, but she got the final word on Wednesday.