This article originally appeared on the Daily Caller News Foundation and was republished with permission.
Guest post by John Loftus
JD Vance loyalists are beginning to lay the groundwork for a 2028 presidential run without the help of Trump World.
Three top Vance aides have all recently taken jobs at powerful lobbying firms in Washington, D.C., Politico reported Monday. Sean Cooksey, the vice president’s former chief legal and policy adviser, decamped for BGR Group; Jim Durrey, a former deputy chief of staff for operations, is now at Invariant; and Wesam Hassanein, former special adviser on the Middle East, has left Vance’s office for Continental Strategy.
As Politico noted, if Vance were to run in 2028, he would need as many fundraising and policy connections as he can get in D.C. And hypothetically, if he wanted to distance himself from President Trump and his team over a variety of reasons — the outcome of the Iran War and how much it hurts the economy, the president’s poor polling numbers failing to improve, a impeachment/investigation blitz from the Democrats should they retake the House and Senate in November — he would need to start building out his network now.
“The vice president’s outside network is small, but they are experienced and fiercely loyal,” a person close to Vance’s team told Politico. “Whatever he does, you can expect Vance alumni to jump into action to support him.”
Vance aides may be going to K Street because the money is good — or because they want to get out now before it’s too late and their careers are damaged. But it also keeps them within arm’s reach if/when Vance were to launch his presidential campaign. Famously, aides to Vice President Kamala Harris ditched her in the middle of her term because they thought she was utterly incompetent. Politico’s source said that in Vance’s case, it is the opposite dynamic.
“Unlike Kamala Harris’s team, staff leaving Vance’s office have only positive things to say. They’re staying close to the White House and want the administration to succeed,” they said.
Michael LaRosa, a former assistant to President Joe Biden, said Biden was able to take advantage of a “network of staffers who cycled through the revolving door from his Senate staff, the committee staffs, his campaign and consulting teams, or his VP office, into the private sector.” Vance is building his own network, much in the way Trump laid the scaffolding of what is now MAGA World after the 2016 election.
“Vice President Vance has been in politics for several years, but is very new to Washington and has a very young staff. His connective tissue and relationships are still being nurtured and cultivated,” LaRosa, who’s now a partner at the lobbying firm, Ballard Partners, told Politico. “The plane is still being built in-flight, which is not dissimilar to the path his boss charted when he first ran.”
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