Vice President JD Vance is set to headline the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual leadership summit at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas, taking the stage Monday evening as the two-day gathering wraps up its second day. Vance will act as keynote speaker at a closed-to-press fireside chat during the summit's VIP session, while President Donald Trump is scheduled to deliver videotaped remarks to attendees during the event's main gala dinner.
The summit, running August 30-31 at the Las Vegas Strip resort, drew its speaker lineup announcement on August 28, according to KTNV. Acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, House Speaker Mike Johnson, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee are all slated to attend, per the station's report. The gathering is scheduled to conclude with a breakfast on Tuesday, September 1.
Vance's appearance is not his first before the coalition. He addressed the Republican Jewish Coalition in 2022 while running as a Senate candidate in Ohio, a race the group backed him in during his primary victory, as reported by VINnews. That earlier appearance came before he joined the national ticket, and his return to the coalition's stage now carries considerably higher stakes.
Donor Friction Over Carlson Ties
Vance's keynote comes amid reported friction with some pro-Israel donors and attendees who have questioned his foreign policy positions and his past working relationship with commentator Tucker Carlson, the outlet's report notes. Several major conservative donors at the summit have reportedly expressed a preference for Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the party's 2028 presidential nominee instead.
The tension is not new. At the coalition's 2025 conference, also held in Las Vegas, organizers handed out signs reading “Tucker is not MAGA” after conservative pushback over Carlson interviewing figures accused of promoting antisemitic ideas, according to the same VINnews account. Hoodline previously reported on the Cruz-Carlson feud when Senator Ted Cruz addressed an RJC crowd in Las Vegas to criticize colleagues who stayed quiet on antisemitism, a sign the intra-party rift over Carlson has simmered for months. Carlson's son previously served on Vance's Senate staff, adding a personal dimension to the ideological debate, per the outlet's report.
A Venue Steeped in Republican Jewish History
The Venetian itself carries symbolic weight for the coalition. The resort was developed by the late casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a Republican donor who served on the RJC's board of directors and was long regarded as the group's principal financial patron, according to The Times of Israel. Adelson died in January 2021 after building Las Vegas Sands into a global gaming company. His widow, Dr. Miriam Adelson, contributed $5 million to the coalition's political action committee and more than $100 million to pro-Trump Super PACs during the 2024 election cycle, as reported by The Forward.
Founded in 1985 during the Reagan administration as the National Jewish Coalition, the organization is led by longtime CEO Matt Brooks and national chairman Norm Coleman, according to The Dispatch. It originally omitted “Republican” from its name to broaden its appeal among Jewish voters, a detail that underscores how much the group's identity has shifted over four decades.
Electoral Gains Fuel the Push
The coalition's political muscle has shown up in both fundraising and election results. During the 2024 cycle, the RJC raised more than $18 million and spent over $16 million on targeted advertising in swing states with significant Jewish populations, including Pennsylvania and Arizona, per The Forward's reporting. Pennsylvania alone was home to roughly 300,000 eligible Jewish voters in 2024.
Those investments came alongside a notable shift at the ballot box. Pew Research Center data released in June 2025 showed Trump captured 35% of the national Jewish vote in 2024, a 15-percentage-point swing toward Republicans and the highest share for a GOP presidential candidate since the 1980s, according to Pew's findings. Roughly 31% of Jewish survey respondents identified as Republican in that same study.
Vance's visit to Las Vegas follows other recent stops tied to his vice-presidential travel schedule, including an August 24 visit to Compotech, a composite technology company, where he was photographed pointing at employee James Beers during a tour in Brewer, Maine. Trump also visited Las Vegas earlier in August, on August 5, where he spoke about tax and economic policies, according to KTNV's report.
