The sharpest public doubts about JD Vance’s standing with Republican voters are now coming from inside Fox News.
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade and the network’s senior political analyst, Brit Hume, 83, spent part of “The Brian Kilmeade Show” on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, questioning whether Vice President JD Vance — widely viewed as the early front-runner for the Republican nomination — is as strong with the party’s voters as he appears. Neither man was ready to hand him the 2028 nomination.
“I just don’t think that Vance is as popular as he thinks he is with Republicans,” Kilmeade said on his radio program.
The doubt started with Hume. Asked about the shape of the next Republican field, he said everyone talks about Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vance, then added that he harbored a suspicion about the vice president — that Vance is everybody’s ideal front-runner, and may well be the real one. “A lot depends on how the public and the party feel about Donald Trump by the time 2028 rolls around,” Hume said.
Hume Sees a Liability Forming
Being joined at the hip to President Donald Trump, Hume said, is an open question for Vance — an asset or a drag, depending on where the country lands. He said he thought it would end up hurting him.
Kilmeade pushed back on that half of it. He argued the race would end differently than Hume expects, pointing to the administration’s handling of Iran and saying it would fall to Trump to turn his policies into legislation so the country does not get whiplash if a Democrat wins. On Vance’s popularity, though, he did not budge.
The numbers give Kilmeade’s hunch something to stand on. An October Economist/YouGov poll found 53% of Americans view Vance unfavorably against 41% who view him favorably, and his standing has tracked Trump’s downward drift in recent months as the second term nears its halfway mark.
The Field Could Reach Double Figures
Kilmeade asked Hume whether Republicans would get into double figures with candidates in 2028, predicting Democrats would line up 20 deep, or at least 15. Hume said they might. The real question, he answered, is who those Republicans would be.
He also doubted the Democratic strategy of campaigning against a president on his way out, saying the party is not for anything — it is against Trump. Kilmeade went further, calling the Democrats a party without a program and dismissing a wealth tax and Medicare for All as serious platforms.
Trump’s Answer With Vance Behind Him
The endorsement question has already produced one awkward sequence. Earlier in October 2026, Vance told journalist Mark Halperin that he had not made up his mind about running but believed Trump would back him if he did. Vance also told Halperin that a Trump endorsement carries more weight than any political endorsement in history, while noting that voters, not the president, decide.
The next day, a reporter put the question to Trump directly, with Vance standing behind him. The president called Vance a very talented and very good person. Then he closed the door, gently: “It’s early. Very early,” Trump said.
Trump has not formally endorsed anyone for 2028. Vance and Rubio are the early favorites on the Republican side, and Hume’s point on the air was that the attention on those two says little about how big the field gets or how the party feels about the man they both serve.
Vance, for his part, has said he is prepared for Trump to “toy” with him in the race for president.