As President Donald Trump stockpiles cash to exert his influence in next year’s midterm elections and beyond, he’s sharing a modest — but notable — sum with his No. 2.
Many of Trump’s recent fundraising emails, as well as the donation button on his official website, direct contributors to make donations that kick 5% of the total to Vice President JD Vance’s PAC, Working for Ohio.
The setup netted the former Ohio senator’s committee $245,000 in May and June alone, according to a campaign finance disclosure.
That’s a helpful haul for a vice president who spends much of his political time fundraising for the Republican National Committee, for which he is finance chair, or other Trump-affiliated entities. Importantly, the setup also provides Vance’s political committee with valuable data about active Trump donors — data that could be useful in a future White House campaign and started coming in as Vance’s PAC otherwise sat on the back burner.
The arrangement came together quietly in the spring, after Trump installed Vance in his RNC finance role, two people familiar with the details told NBC News. The idea behind it was to ensure that Vance’s committee had enough cash to pay for staff and other overhead expenses while his fundraising efforts are primarily focused on the national party.
First in line to the presidency at just 41 years old, Vance is widely seen as the front-runner in what still could be a wide-open fight for the Republican nomination in 2028. Because of that, any political moves surrounding him draw attention to his potential ambitions. The people familiar with the fundraising split said Trump’s approval of it should not be viewed as an endorsement or a blessing of a Vance bid and described it more as a way to ensure Vance’s political operation doesn’t atrophy while his priorities are elsewhere.
Trump, responding to a reporter’s question at the White House last month, acknowledged that he views Vance as his “most likely” heir apparent, though he has been careful not to go beyond praise of his vice president. Trump also suggested that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is “somebody that would maybe get together with JD in some form.”
“It’s too early obviously to talk about it, but certainly he’s doing a great job, and he would be probably favored at this point,” Trump added, referring to Vance.
Even without a full-throated endorsement, Trump has positioned Vance well. In addition to making him the first sitting vice president to serve as the RNC’s finance chair, a role that keeps him connected to the party’s top donors, Trump has also deputized Vance as a key spokesperson for the administration’s priorities.
While the fundraising agreement is not explicitly about 2028, it does offer Vance some advantages. Vance’s team can use the funds to pay advisers and stage events that promote him, and the arrangement gives Vance’s political orbit more insight into Trump’s current world of small-dollar donors.
Meanwhile, Working for Ohio will not be expected to pick up the tab for Vance’s travel to rally for midterm candidates in 2026, the people familiar with the arrangement said. Those costs will be covered by whichever entity is responsible for the event, which is standard practice for political travel.
Trump did not have a donation-sharing arrangement during his first term with Vice President Mike Pence, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Pence, who was the first sitting vice president to form a separate political arm, paid for his personal political travel out of his leadership PAC. But, unlike Vance, who must tend to the RNC’s fundraising, Pence was able to actively raise cash for his committee.
Trump, a prolific fundraiser, raises money for a variety of different “joint fundraising committees,” federal campaign finance vehicles that can serve as central hubs, taking in donations and then doling out money to different smaller committees. Trump’s joint fundraising committees allocate the dollars across different groups according to the Trump orbit’s wishes and campaign finance limits.
One of those joint fundraising committees is Trump National Committee JFC Inc., which currently splits up donations between Trump’s own leadership PAC, Never Surrender, the RNC and Vance’s Working for Ohio. Currently, 77.5% of all money raised to the joint fundraising committee goes to Trump’s group, 17.5% to the RNC and 5% to Vance’s group. Trump’s political team can alter that allocation formula at any time.
The money from Trump’s group has helped replenish Working for Ohio’s coffers, which had been drawn down to about $16,000 in cash on hand and listed more than $100,000 in debts at the end of 2024. The agreement kicked in in May, FEC records show, and sent Vance’s committee slightly more than $245,000 over two months. (The most recent publicly available reports only cover activity through June.)
Vance’s committee spent about $16,000 through the first half of 2025, FEC records show, with most of the money going toward compliance and fundraising consulting and retiring some of the debts. The committee still lists a $96,000 debt related to strategic consulting.
The political team that helped Vance win his 2022 Senate campaign in Ohio — and stayed close to him after Trump picked him as his running mate last year — remains intact. And some of Vance’s advisers are already engaged in key midterm races. For example, one of his top advisers, Andy Surabian, is working with a group backing Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette’s bid for governor in South Carolina, which is traditionally placed early on the presidential caucus and primary calendar.
Those close to Vance, and Vance himself, have emphasized that his focus is on the White House’s agenda and the 2026 midterms — and that his own political future depends on how successful Trump and Republicans are in the meantime.
“My attitude is,” Vance said in an interview with NBC News in May, “if I do end up running in 2028, I’m not entitled to it.”
