Building a name for himself now is probably his best bet for 2028. He’ll be running as the guy to beat. I think it’s also possible that he overestimated his chances at taking :thicc-trump: in a 1-on-1. There was a (fairly meager) attempt to portray their 2018 midterm failure as a result of Trump and I can see how someone at the center of that could get swept up and think they’d be able to oust him this time