Who is actually leading the 2028 White House race? New poll reveals four top contenders

Detailed summary

Four potential contenders in the 2028 race for the White House have caught American voters' attention with their early jockeying

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A new Reuters/Ipsos poll has put four names at the front of American voters' minds when they think about the 2028 White House race: Republicans JD Vance and Marco Rubio, and Democrats Jon Ossoff and Pete Buttigieg.

None of the four has formally entered the race, and the parties' 2028 nominating contests remain more than a year away. That leaves ample time for fresh contenders to surface and for voters to change their minds. Among Republican voters polled, about 45% said Secretary of State Rubio would be an "excellent" presidential candidate, while 43% said the same of Vice President Vance.

Among Republican voters polled, some 45% said they believed Secretary of State Rubio would be an "excellent" presidential candidate, while 43% said the same of Democratic voters. The poll was completed on Monday and surveyed 1,705 US adults nationwide, including roughly 500 registered voters from each party.

Its margin of error was 5 percentage points for Republican and Democratic ​voters. President Donald Trump looms large in both parties as he struggles with an approval rating near the lowest of his career. Republicans are split on whether their preferred candidate should break with Trump or follow in his footsteps.

Democrats, who are flying high after routing Republicans in the November 3 congressional elections, are divided on how aggressively to go after ⁠the president, such as through impeachment.

Trump has been quizzing allies on whom they prefer between Vance and Rubio. In a Sunday interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," he said he would "not necessarily" endorse anyone in the Republican primary.

Barbara Rezner, a Florida attorney who voted for Trump in the last three presidential elections, prefers Rubio to Vance, whom she considers too far right and too close to the president. "Rubio has managed ​to do his job.

Among Republicans, the modest but growing…

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