WJ Straw Poll: Rubio Surges to Commanding Lead, Vance Cruises Past Massie
Secretary of State Marco Rubio took a commanding lead in The Western Journal’s latest 2028 Republican presidential straw poll this past week.
Not only did the former Florida member of the Senate take back his top spot after two weeks in second place, but last week’s leader tumbled all the way to third place.
Rubio hauled in 41 percent of the vote in our non-scientific, Aug. 31 through Sept. 6 survey. That put him 11.9 points ahead of Vice President J.D. Vance, who finished at 29.1 percent.
🇺🇸 The votes are counted — here’s this week’s GOP 2028 straw poll:
Marco Rubio – 41%
JD Vance – 29.1%
Thomas Massie – 12%
Donald J. Trump – 7.4%
Ron DeSantis – 6.3%
Other – 4.2%Did you get who you wanted?
Submit a new vote each week at The Western Journal’s… pic.twitter.com/W2YU4AHNRA
— The Western Journal (@WesternJournalX) September 7, 2026
Since we began tracking reader sentiment about the 2028 primary earlier this year, Rubio and Vance had traded places atop the poll numerous times.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, took his first lead in the survey two weeks ago and held it last week.
The Kentucky Republican rode a wave of support into the top spot after he shared the straw poll on his X page.
In the Sept. 6 survey, the outgoing Republican congressman slipped to third place, thanks to a strong showing of Rubio supporters who got involved on behalf of their preferred candidate.
Rubio’s support climbed 8.7 percentage points from the previous week, when he received 32.3 percent.
Vance also made a notable upward move, gaining 11.7 percentage points from his previous 17.4 percent share of support.
Massie fell from 37.9 percent support last week to 12 percent this week, a drop of 25.9 points.
🇺🇸Results are in — here’s this week’s GOP 2028 straw poll (Aug. 24-30):
Thomas Massie – 37.9%
Marco Rubio – 32.3%
JD Vance – 17.4%
Donald J. Trump – 5.6%
Ron DeSantis – 5%
Other – 1.7%Don’t like this week’s results? Vote right now at https://t.co/1oRKpBgCdE and share with your… pic.twitter.com/1whiuaKUgX
— The Western Journal (@WesternJournalX) August 31, 2026
President Donald Trump, who is term-limited and not running in 2028, has also consistently drawn dedicated support in our weekly survey.
This past week, he received 7.4 percent, which was up from 5.6 percent the previous week.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finished the week with the support of 6.3 percent of straw poll respondents, compared with 5 percent from last week.
Candidates receiving less than 2 percent are grouped into the “Other” category, which reached 4.2 percent this week.
The latest survey also drew substantially more responses than the previous one.
Participation in this past week’s survey grew by about 25 percent week to week.
The Western Journal will continue tracking reader sentiment about the race until Republican primary voters have the opportunity to cast actual ballots.
We would like to hear from you and other voices throughout the conservative movement.
If you would like to make your voice heard in this week’s survey, you can do so by clicking the link here.
We encourage you to share the poll with others who want their votes included in this week’s survey.
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