Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week,” said he would not fall in line behind Vice President J.D. Vance as the Republican Party’s 2028 nominee:

JON KARL, ABC NEWS: I’ve got to ask you about a political question. We saw Erika Kirk endorse J.D. Vance already for 2028 for president. That was interesting. But also interesting was, so did Marco Rubio, who in that article in “Vanity Fair” said that if J.D. Vance runs, he’ll be the nominee, and I’ll be one of the first to support him. I know it’s early. What do you make of this? Is J.D. Vance the heir apparent here? PAUL: I think there needs to be representatives in the Republican Party who still believe international trade is good, who still believe in free market capitalism, who still believe in low taxes. See, it used to separate conservatives and liberals that conservatives thought it was a spending problem, we didn’t want less revenue, we wanted less spending. But now all these pro-tariff protectionists, they love taxes. And so they tax, tax, tax and then they brag about all the revenue coming in. That has never been a conservative position. So I’m going to continue to try to lead a conservative free market wing in the party and we’ll see where things lead over time. KARL: And that’s not J.D. Vance? PAUL: No.

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