![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/AP25354804480915-e1766347680680.jpg?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Erika Kirk, leader of the\u00a0powerful conservative youth organization, endorsed him on opening night of its annual AmericaFest convention, drawing cheers from the crowd.<\/p>\n
But the four-day gathering revealed more peril than promise for Vance or any other potential successor to President Donald Trump, and the tensions on display foreshadow the treacherous waters that they will need to navigate in the coming years. The \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d movement is fracturing as Republicans begin considering a future without Trump, and there is no clear path to holding his coalition together as different factions jockey for influence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWho gets to run it after?\u201d asked commentator Tucker Carlson in his speech at the conference. \u201cWho gets the machinery when the president exits the scene?\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance, who has not said whether he will run for president, is Turning Point\u2019s closing speaker Sunday, appearing at the end of a lineup that includes U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Donald Trump Jr.<\/p>\n
Erika Kirk, who took over as Turning Point\u2019s leader when her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated, said Thursday that the group wanted Vance \u201celected for 48 in the most resounding way possible.\u201d The next president will be the 48th in U.S. history.<\/p>\n
Turning Point is a major force on the right, with a nationwide volunteer network that can be especially helpful in early primary states, when candidates rely on grassroots energy to build momentum.<\/p>\n
The endorsement carried \u201cat least a little bit of weight\u201d for 20 year-old Kiara Wagner, who traveled from Toms River, New Jersey, for the conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone like Erika can support JD Vance, then I can too,\u201d Wagner said.<\/p>\n
Vance was close with Charlie Kirk. After Kirk\u2019s assassination on a college campus in Utah, the vice president\u00a0flew out on Air Force Two\u00a0to collect Kirk\u2019s remains and bring them home to Arizona. The vice president helped uniformed service members carry the casket to the plane.<\/p>\n
The Republican Party\u2019s identity has been intertwined with Trump for a decade. Now that he is constitutionally ineligible to run for reelection, the party is starting to ponder a future without him at the helm.<\/p>\n
So far, it looks like settling that question will require a lot of fighting among conservatives. Turning Point featured arguments about antisemitism, Israel and environmental regulations, not to mention rivalries between leading commentators.<\/p>\n
Carlson said the idea of a Republican \u201ccivil war\u201d was \u201ctotally fake.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people who are mad at JD Vance, and they\u2019re stirring up a lot of this in order to make sure he doesn\u2019t get the nomination,\u201d he said. Carlson describe Vance as \u201cthe one person\u201d who subscribes to the \u201ccore idea of the Trump coalition,\u201d which Carlson said was \u201cAmerica first.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turning Point spokesperson Andrew Kolvet framed the discord as a healthy debate about the future of the movement, an uncomfortable but necessary process of finding consensus.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not hive-minded commies,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cLet it play out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vance appeared to have the edge as far as Turning Point attendees are concerned.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has to be JD Vance because he has been so awesome when it comes to literally any question,\u201d said Tomas Morales, a videographer from Los Angeles. He said \u201cthere\u2019s no other choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has not chosen a successor, though he has spoken highly of both Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, even suggesting they could form a future Republican ticket. Rubio has said he would support Vance.<\/p>\n
Asked in August whether Vance was the \u201cheir apparent,\u201d Trump said \u201cmost likely.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s too early, obviously, to talk about it, but certainly he\u2019s doing a great job, and he would be probably favorite at this point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Any talk of future campaigns is complicated by Trump\u2019s occasional musings about\u00a0seeking a third term.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not allowed to run,\u201d he told reporters during a trip to Asia in October. \u201cIt\u2019s too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Turning #Point #gathering #reveals #peril #Trump #successor #Erika #Kirk #backs #Vance #president<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Erika Kirk, leader of the\u00a0powe… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[2166,5184,5182,5181,5185,1498,160,1652,1329,307,5183,599,1015,5186],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}