OXFORD, Mississippi — Perhaps the most consequential test being taken on campus at Ole Miss today isn’t being filled out by a student, administered by a professor or assigned in a classroom. But you can be sure it will be graded.
When Vice President JD Vance steps onstage tonight at the SJB Pavilion for a Turning Point USA event, he’ll face a formidable challenge. He will try to engage in a spirited back-and-forth with college students and live up to comparisons to his late friend, Charlie Kirk. He will try to avoid the potential pitfalls that accompany an unpredictable, live college debate format that could lead to him seeming to diminish the office he now holds. And he will try to not be too obvious in his angling for a 2028 presidential bid.
“There’s tons of risks,” said a person familiar with Vance’s thinking, granted anonymity to speak about strategy.
Vance, who will deliver a speech and take questions from students in the audience, said he plans to mimic Kirk’s often contentious debate-style format during Wednesday’s event.
“I’m going to do exactly what Charlie did,” Vance said recently while discussing the appearance. “[Kirk] would answer tough questions from the left and from the right, and so I want to do that, too.”
But White House officials and people close to Vance caution that simply playing Kirk may do more harm than good amid early speculation of a 2028 presidential run.
“[Charlie] had unique skills,” said the person familiar with Vance’s thinking.
“Vance can be an awkward guy on stage,” said a White House official granted anonymity to speak candidly about Vance’s public perception. “He’s not going to be what Kirk was, he’s just different from that.”
Kirk quickly grew Turning Point into a viral content machine, churning out videos of the group’s young founder going toe-to-toe with college students in a town-hall format — debating students on hot topic political issues from gun control to immigration to abortion rights. A driving force of that virality was Kirk’s exuberant and often argumentative energy.
The almost impossible-to-replicate nature of Kirk’s debate style and soundbite savviness places Vance in a challenging position as he seeks to match Kirk’s formula.
Vance’s appearance on the “This is the Turning Point” tour comes at a transitional moment for the conservative student organization, which is widely credited for turning out Trump-supporting college-aged voters in droves during the 2024 election.
Since Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10, Vance — who considered Kirk a close friend — has served as a bridge between the Trump administration and Turning Point, the White House official said. Vance has appeared on Kirk’s former radio show twice since his death, once hosting the show from the White House campus. Turning Point, for its part, has held a number of events in that time featuring Republican leaders, with Vance the most prominent yet.
For Vance, these are the moves of a grieving friend. But to political observers, his proximity to Turning Point in recent weeks highlights his growing alliance with the powerhouse youth group amid early speculation of his own 2028 presidential run.
But this comes against a backdrop of President Donald Trump’s refusal to unconditionally rule out a run for a third term in 2028, despite constitutional limits and Republican write-offs that Trump isn’t being serious and is merely trolling Democrats.
“I would love to do it. I have my best numbers,” Trump said aboard Air Force One on Monday when asked about running again. To a follow-up question, Trump continued, “Am I not ruling it out? I mean, you’ll have to tell me.”
On Wednesday, Trump acknowledged that the Constitution doesn’t allow him to run for a third term. “If you read it, it’s pretty clear: I’m not allowed to run. It’s too bad,” he said. But those remarks were far from definitive.
That leaves Vance in a somewhat stalled position. He’s Trump’s natural successor but also eager to not be seen as his competitor — a common tension between a president and vice president that has new legs with Trump’s demand for brazen loyalty.
Ultimately, when it comes to Vance’s calculus behind aligning himself with the influential MAGA youth movement, Vance feels a sense of gratitude and responsibility to his late friend, according to two White House officials and the person familiar with Vance’s thinking. That, more than any 2028 considerations, looms large in Vance’s thinking for Wednesday’s event: He wants to honor Kirk, he said.
— Simone Perez contributed reporting
Jake Traylor
Jake Traylor is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.