According to most polls, former President Donald Trump is the clear front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination which has fueled speculation about who he will choose as his running mate.
According to an article from the 1945 website, the three leading candidates for Trump’s vice president are all women and include Kari Lake, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG), and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
?Report: President Trump is considering picking three possible names to become as his VP pick in 2024.
Kari Lake @KariLake
Marjorie Taylor Green @RepMTG @mtgreenee
Governor Kristi Noem @KristiNoem
Tell me what you think in the comments.— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) May 11, 2023
Lake is a former news anchor in Arizona who narrowly lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the Arizona gubernatorial election in 2022. As the 1945 article stated, “Lake is a unique creature, spewing the hard right rhetoric that MAGA Nation finds so endearing, while doing so with the glitz and polish of a seasoned TV reporter.”
Greene has been known as a far-right Republican who has recently begun to gain more mainstream acceptance in the party. “The version of MTG that can appeal to both MAGA and the mainstream is a concerning premise, and someone that Trump has his eye on as a prospective running mate with appeal in the newly-in-play Georgia,” is how Greene is described by 1945.
Noem, when asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” if she would be Trump’s running mate replied, “I would be shocked if he asked.” However, Noem has remained loyal to Trump and is supporting his current run for president while maintaining her popularity as a conservative.
The Associated Press stated in March, “Trump campaign officials insist that the vice presidential search is not something they have been actively discussing,” and with the timing of the election, a vice president choice will probably not be made until the primaries are over.
At the same time, however, speculation has been ongoing for this choice for months, beginning shortly after Trump officially announced his candidacy.
Donald Trump announces he’s running for president in 2024 https://t.co/moYn0JyG8E
— Bloomberg (@business) November 16, 2022
For his part, Trump has downplayed the role that the vice presidential nominee plays in any election while also stressing the importance of the position once elected.
“I’ve watched this for a long time,” Trump told NewsMax. “There’s never been a vice president that’s done anything for the election. In other words, they vote for the one person.”
Trump went on to acknowledge that Mike Pence was a “very good vice president” stating, “He did a good job until the end. I disagreed with him very strongly — I still do. But I don’t think vice presidents have any impact at all on the vote.”
At the time of the 2016 election, Pence was considered an ideal running mate.
“Pence, a devout Christian, was credible amongst evangelicals who had serious character questions about Trump, the hard-talking New Yorker who boasted of grabbing women however he pleased,” the 1945 article stated.
AP stated that the primary quality Trump is looking for in a vice president is loyalty, especially as he has clearly felt disloyalty both from Pence in 2020 and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis right now.
“I am very disappointed in him because I’m a loyal person, maybe to a fault. I’m a loyal person, and somebody gets you into office and then you’re telling people, ‘Well, I don’t know if I’ll run against the president,’” Trump said of DeSantis according to the Washington Examiner. “A lot of people said loyalty doesn’t mean anything. Well, to me, loyalty means a lot.”
While Biden is retaining Kamala Harris as his vice president, it seems very likely that Trump’s ticket would include a woman as well, and more than likely one of the three listed above.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
