JD Vance confronts Jewish GOP skeptics ahead of a potential 2028 run

Vance Seeks to Reassure Jewish Republican Donors as 2028 Contests Take Shape

Healfromzero.com – In a tightly controlled, roughly 45-minute conversation held Monday night at the Venetian resort in Las Vegas, Vice President JD Vance attempted to quiet a growing undercurrent of unease among Jewish Republican activists and major donors who have watched his recent public remarks on Israel with increasing alarm. The session, organized by the Republican Jewish Coalition and moderated by former Minnesota senator Norm Coleman — who chairs the RJC’s national board — took place just hours after Vance had been on the campaign trail in Michigan, where he sparred with Abdul El-Sayed, the state’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.

The event was deliberately kept out of the press. Reporters were stationed one floor below the room where Vance spoke, and no audience questions were permitted. What emerged was a moderated dialogue that nonetheless drifted into some of the most charged fault lines in the current Republican coalition: the future of the American-Israeli alliance, the influence of right-wing media personalities, and whether the party has truly settled on a single standard-bearer for the 2028 presidential race.

Elephants in the Room

Vance himself flagged the tension early, referring to “some of the obvious elephants in the room” when the conversation turned to the measurable decline in public enthusiasm for Israel among younger Americans. He argued that Republicans must

“actually get out there and talk about the ways in which it is in the best interest of the United States of America.”

The remark landed against a backdrop of two major conflicts — Israel’s war in Gaza that followed Hamas’s October 7, 2023, assault, and the more recent U.S.-Israel military engagement with Iran — both of which have coincided with a noticeable erosion of bipartisan support for Tel Aviv. For the RJC, whose membership is composed of politically engaged donors and grassroots organizers, that erosion is not an abstract polling trend; it is a direct threat to the group’s ability to shape the next GOP ticket.

The Carlson Question

The most pointed exchange came when Coleman asked Vance how he decides which media platforms to accept. Coleman noted that Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Joe Rogan, and Nick Fuentes “have platformed antisemites,” a pointed reference to the far-right commentator who has become a recurring irritant within the pro-Israel wing of the party.

Vance acknowledged the discomfort without fully distancing himself:

“I recognize a lot of people in this room might disagree with things that Tucker Carlson or Megyn Kelly or Joe Rogan has said.”

He went on to draw a sharp line between Rogan and Fuentes, calling them “very, very different” figures. That distinction matters to the audience in question: Fuentes, a White nationalist and Holocaust denier, was hosted by President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022, a fact that still stings within the Jewish donor community.

Vance defended his broader media strategy by insisting Republicans must

“be willing to go everywhere and bring our message anywhere and to any person.”

Not every attendee found that answer satisfactory. Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Gen Z Jewish activist present at the event, told reporters that Vance “totally deflected” on the Carlson issue and predicted the former Fox News host would “continue to dog” the vice president much as the far-left streamer Hasan Piker has been linked to El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate contest. Carlson himself did not respond to a request for comment on the RJC appearance. Notably, Vance has so far declined to formally disavow Carlson, even after Trump publicly called him “totally irrelevant” following a falling out over the Iran war. Carlson has since apologized for having backed Trump’s position.

A Party That Has Not Yet Coalesced

The RJC gathering arrived at a moment when the 2028 field remains conspicuously unsettled. Senator Ted Cruz recently told reporters that the party has not locked onto Vance and that a “full discussion” about the GOP’s governing principles will precede any formal nomination. Within Jewish Republican circles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has emerged as an alternative preference, and several ambitious Republicans have worked to cast doubt on Vance’s pro-Israel record. The RJC had invited both Rubio and Cruz to speak at the Las Vegas event, but neither could attend.

This was Vance’s first appearance at an RJC summit since 2022, when he was running for Senate in Ohio and attended the gathering without taking the stage. Much has shifted in the intervening years: the Gaza war, the Iran conflict, and a broader cultural reckoning over antisemitism in American politics have all raised the stakes for the coalition that funds and organizes a substantial share of the party’s donor infrastructure.

Money, Influence, and the Adelson Connection

The RJC’s political weight is amplified by its close alignment with Miriam Adelson, widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and one of the largest individual contributors to Trump’s 2024 campaign, who donated more than $100 million. It was unclear whether Adelson herself was present in the Las Vegas room. RJC leaders who spoke afterward nonetheless offered measured praise.

Ari Fleischer, the former White House press secretary who now sits on the RJC board, told reporters:

“The vice president really helped himself tonight. He answered a lot of questions that people had about where his heart is.”

Whether that reassurance is enough to hold the coalition together through the next election cycle remains an open question. The RJC’s CEO, Matt Brooks, explained that the group chose a closed format to permit an “open and honest” conversation — a signal that the issues being discussed are considered too delicate for a public transcript. For the donors and activists who bankroll the party’s most organized wing, the answer to where Vance’s heart truly sits may determine who, if anyone, carries the Republican banner into 2028.