A straw poll taken at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest this weekend revealed that conservatives are, as a spokesman described, ‘all in’ for Vice President JD Vance running for president in 2028.
Asked who they would like to see as the Republican presidential nominee in 2028, the vast majority of respondents, 84.2%, answered Vice President JD Vance. Far behind Vance was Rubio at 4.8% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 2.9%.
Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for TPUSA, told Fox News Digital that the poll portrays a clear picture of the state of the conservative movement.
From the responses, Kolvet said it is clear that ‘the movement is all-in for JD Vance in 2028, winning the most support in the history of our poll.’
Kolvet explained,’There are bright dividing lines in the conservative movement right now, so we wanted to get clarity on where the base is on these hot-button issues in Turning Point Action’s official AmericaFest 2025 straw poll.’
‘We wanted to get a real read on where the base is at after Charlie’s assassination, and a few things really jump off the page,’ he said.
The most popular Trump administration accomplishment amongst conference attendees was securing the border, with nearly 60% of respondents answering this, while 22.2% of respondents answered deportations.
Conference attendees also shared that winning the midterms and radical Islam are among their top concerns.
A wide margin believed that the conservative movement’s top priority in 2026 should be winning the midterms. Per the poll, 63.9% of AmFest attendees believed the conservative movement should be prioritizing winning the midterms, which would preserve Republicans’ majorities in the House and Senate.
The next highest priority, according to attendees, was voter integrity/voter ID at 9.3%. Other priorities were the affordability crisis at 8.1%, mass deportations at 5.3% and accountability for the deep state/lawfare at 4.2%.
Asked what the biggest threat is facing America, 31,008 responded ‘radical Islam.’ In close second was socialism and Marxism at 30,387. Third was mass migration, with 28,223 saying that is the greatest threat to America, and fourth was the economy and affordability at 27,315.
Related to mass migration, 89.5% of poll respondents said they would support a moratorium on new immigration into the United States.
Attendees were also questioned on their feelings about Israel. Over half, 53.4 percent, said they see Israel as ‘one ally out of many,’ while a third said they see Israel as America’s ‘top ally’ and 13.3 percent said they believe Israel is ‘not an ally.’
The poll also revealed what members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet are most popular and unpopular amongst the conference’s heavily conservative audience.
According to the poll, which was taken by Big Data Poll, the Trump Cabinet member with the strongest job performance approval rating amongst AmFest attendees is Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, as 83.3% of conference attendees voiced they strongly approve of him.
A total of 94.7% of AmFest attendees said they either strongly or somewhat approve of Hegseth.
As War secretary, Hegseth has been one of the most vocal Trump Cabinet members, with such actions as changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, expunging DEI from the military and targeting cartel drug boats in the Caribbean.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. received similarly high approval ratings from the AmFest attendees at 76.6% and 80.8%, respectively. Kennedy received the highest overall approval rating from AmFest attendees, with 96.8% saying they either strongly or somewhat approve of him.
The Cabinet member with the highest disapproval rating was U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom 13.4% of attendees said they strongly disapprove of and 15.6% said they somewhat disapprove. Despite this, most poll participants, 64.8%, still said they either strongly or somewhat approve of Bondi’s job performance in the Trump administration.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, another highly vocal and prominent Trump Cabinet member who has spearheaded the administration’s deportations and border security efforts, received broad approval with 90.1% of participants saying they either strongly or somewhat approve of her job performance.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy both received approval ratings in the 80s.
Poll participants had less to say about Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collin, with between 28 and 39% of respondents saying they were unsure about their job performance.
According to the poll, 88.3% of respondents self-identified as Republican and 94.7% identified as conservative.
Commenting on the poll, Kolvet said that conservatives ‘see Israel as an important ally of the United States despite so much chatter to the contrary’ and ‘they love the job that Secretaries Hegseth, Rubio, and RFK Jr. are doing, but they harbor skepticism about the DOJ.’
‘Above all,’ Kolvet said that conservatives ‘are laser focused on winning the midterms and fixing mass migration, which they clearly see as connected to the rise of radical Islam, socialism, and crime.’
He added that ‘it’s clear that immigration remains the key to energizing the base ahead of the midterms.’
