A month after former President Donald Trump delivered his highly anticipated “big announcement” declaring his intent to make another bid for the White House, questions abound as to who Trump intends to pick as his running mate.
The 45th president filed the formal paperwork and told a crowd at Mar-a-Lago that “America’s comeback starts right now.” The former president has made no indication as to who might fill the vice presidential seat.
Politico previously reported that an unnamed Trump adviser claims the former president is likely to choose a running mate “from three general lanes of candidates: women, conservatives of color, or a trusted adviser.”
One person may be emerging as a potential early contender for the vice presidential spot on the ticket: Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, the newly elected chairwoman of the Republican Governors Association.
Bob Vander Plaats, CEO of the Christian conservative organization The Family Leader, advocated for Reynolds, saying she would make an excellent vice president.
“As a matter of fact, I think she would be a great presidential candidate right now,” Vander Plaats said. “She has a lot of stock across the country of how she has led during COVID, how she has led through the racial unrest, and a lot of other things.”
“Iowa in many ways has been a model. I watched her on Laura Ingraham’s [Fox News] show with five different governors, and she just stood out,” he continued. “So I think Gov. Reynolds — obviously, it’s up to her, she’s not going to run for president — but she would make a very compelling VP choice.”
Reynolds isn’t the only potential VP, with some reports also suggesting Trump could be considering Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY).
Robert Draper, a correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, believes that Trump is eyeing Greene to fill the seat.
Draper said in an interview with The Daily Beast’s “New Abnormal” podcast “that Greene had risen quickly in her first term in Congress by using the same tactics she honed as a right-wing social media influencer harassing Democratic staffers, and she could shoot to the second-highest office in government,” Raw Story reported.
“Republicans kind of wanted to kick her to the curb immediately,” said Draper. “But instead, she became a fundraising dynamo, came to have this huge social media influence, and ultimately came to be very influential within the party itself.”
Draper claimed that Trump has been seriously discussing Greene as a potential VP since February, and, though he has likely considered others, she has another quality that may propel her to the top of the list.
“She has been unflaggingly loyal to Trump throughout,” Draper said. “What is Trump concerned about most of all in a VP after the Mike Pence experience? Loyalty. He knows that if he needs someone to fight for him to overturn a presidential election. He has every reason to expect that Greene would be by his side and would be his proximate warrior.”
Greene is not the only female Republican lawmaker under consideration by Trump, according to other reports. Recent reports seem to be focused on Stefanik, currently the No. 3 ranking member of the Republican Party.
In a September Foreign Policy story, the claim is made that “A young woman once hailed as the future of the Republican Party embraces Trumpism to stay that way.”
CNN also published a report in late May, speculating that Stefanik is high on the “running mate list.”
“Two people familiar with the matter said Trump has been surveying close friends and allies on what they think of Stefanik, one of several Republican women he is possibly eyeing for the potential VP slot, though he has not ruled out a few male contenders, too,” the report read. “One of these people said the former President believes Stefanik has undergone a genuine transformation – leaving the moderate wing of the party to join its increasingly powerful ‘America First’ flank.”
“There is a part of Trump who thinks he needs a female VP. He definitely likes her, likely because of how effusive she is to him,” an adviser to the former president said.
