By A new, interesting name has begun to rise up the list of potential vice president candidates for Donald Trump.
Many have assumed that the vice presidential race was coming down to Tim Scott and Elise Stefanik. Right before the South Carolina primary, the Palmetto State senator endorsed the former president over Nikki Haley, the former governor of the state who helped launch his career.
The move caught Trump’s eye. The former president said, “He’s been such a great advocate. I have to say this in a very positive way, Tim Scott, he has been much better for me than he was for himself. I watched his campaign, and he doesn’t like talking about himself. But boy does he talk about Trump. … I called him and I said, ‘Tim, you’re better for me than you were for yourself.’”
Stefanik has long been a Trump favorite. New Conservative Post reported, “Last year, with help from former President Trump, she took out Liz Cheney as Chair of House Republican Caucus, but now the thirty-eight-year-old mom may be eyeing an even bigger position: the vice presidency.
The Daily Caller explains that “Stefanik fits the profile of characteristics Trump’s team will be looking for in a VP. She’s rallied behind him in his impeachment proceedings and the New York indictment, and was the first member of GOP leadership to endorse him for president — throwing her weight behind his candidacy before Trump announced it himself. Her commitment could lead Trump to choose her on a basis of loyalty, which those close to Trump say is the most desired quality in a VP.”
Now, however, as the rubber hits the road, multiple reports have stated that Trump may be considering a heavy hitter.
Former President Trump has begun eyeing Marco Rubio, senator from Florida, as a potential vice presidential pick per several sources connected to the campaign.
“The list is long, and it’s extremely early in any kind of process,” a Trump adviser said. “No one has been directly reached out to yet, and I do not expect that for some time,” according to NBC News.
Two sources familiar with planning said there is a growing consensus around a June announcement of a vice presidential pick — at least a month before the convention — but there are no firm plans yet.
Rubio is young and telegenic, he has spent more time in federal office than Vice President Kamala Harris, and, at a time when Trump is bullish on his chances of winning over Latino voters, he would be the first Latino person on a major-party presidential ticket.
In other words, Rubio, the Miami-born son of working-class Cuban immigrants, looks good on paper and on television — a powerful combination for Trump.
The choice of Rubio would put Trump into a bit of a conundrum. He’d have to move again.
The Miami Herald explains that making a fellow Floridian vice president might mean running afoul of the Constitution.
“The debate centers around a clause in the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which says that electors cannot vote for both a president and vice president from their own state. Taken at face value, that would prevent Florida’s 30 presidential electors from voting for a hypothetical Trump-Rubio ticket.
Kevin Wagner, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University, said that there’s actually nothing in the Constitution preventing presidential and vice presidential candidates who reside in the same state from running together.
‘[The electors] aren’t allowed to vote for two people from the same state that they come from, so hypothetically you couldn’t vote for both Mr. Trump and Mr. Rubio, or at least the Florida electors couldn’t,’ Wagner said. ‘If a hypothetical ticket of Trump-Rubio won by enough of a margin though it wouldn’t matter.’”
In effect, the two would have to split Florida’s electoral votes in what could be a tight election. In 2019, Trump declared that he was leaving New York City and moving to Florida, a move that could be easily reversed, given the former president’s multiple properties scattered throughout the country.
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