How will DeSantis, Youngkin and other 2028 hopefuls remain relevant beyond the Trump administration?

During a busy week in the state capital, away from the action, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis he had no problem keeping his name in the political spotlight.

“It’s time for action. And time for Washington, DC, to deliver results to the American people. No more excuses for Republicans,” the two-term conservative governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate said Thursday as he named Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody will succeed Senator Marco Rubio in the Senate.

Two days earlier, President-elect Trump hailed his once-bitter GOP primary rival after the governor called for a special session of the state legislature to implement Trump’s expected crackdown on immigration.

“Thank you Ron, we hope the other governors will follow!” said the newly elected president in a post on social networks.

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Because of the national profile he has built over the past four years, the governor of one of the nation’s most important states will likely continue to make headlines as he takes the lead on some of the nation’s most important issues.

The spotlight should help DeSantis if he ends up starting his second in a row GOP presidential nomination run in 2028, a race where incoming Vice President JD Vance will be seen as the clear early front-runner as the perceived America First and MAGA Trump successor.

“He’s got to do what he’s been doing in 2022, which is pick good fights. And he’s shown a lot of ability to pick good fights with the left both in Florida and nationally,” longtime Republican strategist David Kochel said of DeSantis.

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“I think he’s going to be asked to come do things in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina,” Kochel, a veteran of numerous GOP presidential campaignshe predicted, pointing to three key early voting states in the Republican presidential primary.

“I wouldn’t change much from how he did the preparation for his 2024 campaign. The problem was that he was essentially running against the incumbent. He didn’t have the wrong plan. He had the wrong cycle.”

While the first moves in the 2028 White House race are likely to begin in the coming months, including some early state visits, most Americans won’t be paying close attention until the 2026 midterms, when the next presidential campaign officially begins. And that’s when DeSantis will complete his second and final four-year term at the helm of Florida, allowing him to focus 100% on a White House run if that’s in the cards.

But what about another high-profile Republican governor who likely has national ambitions in 2028?

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Virginia’s constitution does not allow incumbent governors to run for a second consecutive term, so Governor Glenn Youngkin will be out of the Richmond office in a year.

Compared to DeSantis, who also enjoys a large GOP majority in his state legislature, which will allow him to continue to push a conservative agenda, Virginia is a purple state where Democrats have a slim advantage in the legislature.

“It might be a little more difficult for Youngkin, a little more difficult for him to find ways to stay in the news” after he leaves office in a year, Kochel suggested.

But, Younkin predicted, “You’re going to see me a lot.”

“We’ve had a very aggressive governorship program over the last 14 months,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital in November. “But part of that plan I have is to make sure we do it [Lt. Gov.] Winsome Sears as our next governor. [Virginia Attorney General] Jason Miyares is back as our attorney general and the super-governor we will choose in our primaries.”

Youngkin, who galvanized Republicans nationwide in 2021 as the first candidate to come from the party’s business wing, bested former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe to become the first GOP candidate in a decade to win a gubernatorial election in a one-time swing of states that has tended towards the Democrats during the previous decade. He could also potentially end up in the Trump administration after his term in Richmond ends in a year.

“I told the president when I called him and told him I wanted to finish my term that I would be available to him at all times while I’m governor and beyond,” Youngkin told Fox News Digital, referring to the call with Trump immediately after elections in November.

But if he doesn’t make it into the Trump administration, another avenue for Youngkin to stay in the spotlight in 2026 would be to criss-cross the country on behalf of fellow Republicans running in the midterm elections. It’s a role Youngkin previously played in 2022, helping fellow Republican governors and gubernatorial candidates.

“He has to block and fight, go state by state, help a lot of candidates, raise a lot of money for them. Elect a bunch of governors,” Kochel suggested. “It’s a book for him.”

About what? Nikki Haley, former two-term Republican governor of South Carolina and former US ambassador to the UN in Trump’s first administration, who was the last challenger against Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential primary?

Out of office and shut out of Trump’s world, while still facing social media attacks from the president-elect, Haley’s ability to command attention if she runs for president again could be a tougher climb within a party that is once again on its knees before the former president. and future president.

Haley has a weekly national radio show on Sirius XM, where she stated a few weeks ago, “I had no interest in being in the [Trump’s] Cabinet.”

But a lot can happen in the two years until the next race for the White House officially begins. There could be remorse among voters if the new administration is not successful in implementing some of its goals.

“Even though JD Vance is starting out as the presumptive favorite right now, he’s going to come a million miles between now and then,” veteran Republican strategist Colin Reed told Fox News.

And Kochel added that for some Republicans considering presidential runs in 2028, “I think a little strategic distance is not a bad idea. Because you don’t know what’s going to happen in the next two years.”

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But holding statewide office—whether as governor or senator—doesn’t guarantee favorable coverage.

“A day job cuts both ways. It gives you a platform, a megaphone, and the ability to write news whenever you want. But it also carries with it the responsibilities of governance or legislation or being part of government bodies, whether it’s Congress or the state you govern, where things can go wrong and end up on your doorstep and become political baggage,” Reed noted.

Reed warned that “history is littered with those officials who ran for and won a second term only to have political baggage at home become a political headache on the campaign trail.”