Four women take an early lead in Trump veepstakes if he gets 2024 GOP nod
Christian Datoc
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The shadow campaign to become former President Donald Trump‘s 2024 running mate if he wins the nomination is taking shape, though multiple sources say there is no clear front-runner.
Trump has signaled he will ditch his previous No. 2, former Vice President Mike Pence, who has his eyes set on his own White House bid. More than a dozen Trump campaign veterans and former administration officials believe the former president will likely select a woman to join him on the ticket in an effort to win back the female voters he hemorrhaged to President Joe Biden in 2020.
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Sources say that potential candidates must display one defining characteristic, an unflinching loyalty to the former president, and most of the MAGA figures who spoke to the Washington Examiner agree that four women in particular are on Trump’s short list: Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR), and former Arizona journalist Kari Lake.
Sanders, the youngest governor in the United States and the longest-tenured press secretary in the Trump White House, flew up political draft boards after she delivered what Trump supporters agree was an “exceptionally strong” response to Biden’s State of the Union on Feb. 7.
“She’s an expert communicator who knows exactly what it takes to cut it in a Trump administration,” one former White House official told the Washington Examiner. “Plus, she could serve as a counterbalance to the argument that Trump should not seek reelection based on his age. She represents the future of the MAGA movement.”
Noem was elected as South Dakota’s first female governor in 2018 after spending more than a decade in the House of Representatives and has made a name for herself as a leading Republican lawmaker in the so-called “culture wars.”
Multiple Trumpworld figures noted, somewhat bashfully, that the former president is supremely focused on pageantry, suggesting that Noem’s appearance could give her a leg up on the competition.
“Anyone who says that won’t play a factor in the president’s mind is lying to themselves,” one adviser stated. “Optics are everything.”
Stefanik, the current chairwoman of the House GOP conference, was elected as a centrist Republican in 2015 but, after serving on the president’s defense team during his first impeachment, has shifted increasingly to the right. She frequently touts her strong ties to Trump and even endorsed his 2024 run days before he announced his candidacy.
Lake is perhaps the strangest potential pick and one many current and former Trump advisers hope he avoids. The former Phoenix-area news anchor lost her Trump-endorsed 2022 gubernatorial bid against Democrat Katie Hobbs, but she only further endeared herself to the former president by repeatedly claiming that widespread fraud occurred in the 2020 election.
“She’s the one we have to watch out for,” one former Trump campaign official said. “If she ends up being the pick, this whole thing goes belly up.”
Three GOP operatives with experience in multiple presidential campaigns stated that Trump could benefit from picking former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who left the Democratic Party before embarking on her media career, or former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who “hasn’t shied away from criticizing Trump after Jan. 6.”
“That’s how you win back moderate voters, not by digging your heels in on this stolen election nonsense,” one operative said.
Haley would be an extremely unlikely candidate, as she earned strong rebukes from the former president after she announced on Wednesday that she would run against Trump in the GOP primary and called for competency tests for all politicians over the age of 75 in the process.
Trump’s campaign sent out opposition research during Haley’s campaign announcement, and the former president mocked her multiple times on Truth Social.
“Nikki Haley had a hard time making the decision to run for President because she very publicly stated that she ‘would never run against the President. He did a GREAT JOB, and was the best President in my lifetime.’ I told Nikki to follow her heart, not her ambition or belief. Who knows, stranger things have happened. She’s polling at 1%, not a bad start!!!” Trump said online.
“The greatest thing Nikki Haley did for our Country, and the Great State of South Carolina, was accepting the position of United Nations Ambassador so that the incredible then Lieutenant Governor, Henry McMaster, could be Governor of South Carolina, where he has done an absolutely fantastic job. That was a big reason why I appointed Nikki to the position — It was a favor to the people I love in South Carolina!” he added in a follow-up post.
“He’s about as likely to pick Liz Cheney as Haley at this point,” one senior GOP official joked.
Two current advisers suggested that Trump forgo picking a woman and instead pick a black lawmaker, such as Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) or former Georgia state Rep. Vernon Jones. Both picks are viewed as extreme long shots, as Jones, the former-Democrat-turned-MAGA-adherent, lacks national name recognition and is coming off failed gubernatorial and U.S. House campaigns, while Scott is flirting with his own presidential run in 2024. Both advisers agreed that former University of Georgia football star Herschel Walker would not be a helpful pick after a disastrous Senate campaign that cost Republicans control of the upper chamber of Congress.
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All of this presupposes Trump can win the nomination with a strong challenge from Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) looming.
Four former Trump advisers, however, laughed off any talks of a potential Trump running mate, as “he probably won’t even get out of the primary this time around.”