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WHO WANTS TO RUN FOR VICE PRESIDENT?
By Lisa Desjardins, @LisaDNews
Correspondent
 
Former president Donald Trump needs a running mate.
 
But he wants something else first: A troop of big-name conservatives publicly competing for the job of vice president (and his attention). A kind of constitutional ‘Apprentice.’
 
Neither he nor the Mike Pence-replacement-hopefuls have much time to do this. 
 
There are about 48 days, including today, until the Republican National Convention begins on July 15. (In terms of vetting, that’s shorter than the State Department’s estimated processing time for a passport without someone paying extra for expedited service.) 
 
Let’s take a look at the known candidates and what their campaigns for vice president tell us.
 
Current names
 
First, a sprinkle of reality salt here.
 
Trump likes to keep people guessing and can make an unpredictable turn at any time. These names may be semifinalists. Or they may not. At any rate, this is a list of people currently under consideration, according to my sources in the Republican world and public statements by the former president himself.

• Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas 
• Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida
• Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio
• Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina
• Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York
• Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota
• Former Housing Secretary Ben Carson 

Some pros and cons
 
This is a lopsided list in favor of current lawmakers. You may ask: Why, especially when Congress has horribly low approval ratings?  
 
The answer is similar to why Trump chose Pence in 2016. The former president’s appeal is, in part, that his life was lived largely outside the political system. But for all of his railing against institutions, he could benefit from having someone who has been inside the government to give a sense of stability and institutional backbone.  
 
And Trump publicly enjoys having high-profile figures with some power of their own acknowledge that he has more. 
 
What is Trump looking for? He has said he wants someone who can be a strong president. But sources in the Trump campaign also stress to me that he wants someone who matches up well against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris — in a debate and on the campaign trail. 
 
With that, let us address some individual pros and cons.
 
Cotton is rising, as someone who eschews openly campaigning for the job as “not helpful” and is talking about policy. He is also doing a lot of interviews, we noticed, this month. 
 
Rubio, per sources, is touting his skills as a good speaker and strong debater. He also has had some big-moment hiccups. (See: Rubio’s “water break” during his GOP response to Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address.) Trump also spent months mocking him in 2016. Rubio, too, has an electoral problem. The U.S. Constitution is generally interpreted as blocking electors from one state, like Florida, from voting for both a president and vice president from the same state. Sources suggest that should Rubio be the pick, either he or Trump would need to move elsewhere. 
 
Vance, 39, is a younger choice, popular with Rust Belt crowds in his home state of Ohio and elsewhere. And his switch from anti-Trump to ardently pro-Trump is the kind of thing Trump wants to highlight. 
 
Scott is a choice some analysts can misunderstand. As one source told me, it is easy to think the Black senator might sway Black voters. But the smarter understanding is that he could appeal to an additional demographic: suburban women who might be uncomfortable with Trump. One Republican said it gives a kind of “permission” to vote for a Trump ticket, for those who worry Trump would further divide on racial and partisan lines.
 
Stefanik would be a politician who focuses on the attack. She is ambitious and is pushing her loyalty to Trump to the extent that she is still denying the results of the 2020 election, which we know Biden won. The Trump team is questioning if two candidates on the attack are better, or worse, than one.
 
Burgum, like Scott, brings the likable. And as a self-made business tycoon, he has earned Trump’s praise.
 
Carson is someone Trump has mentioned, and is a wild card. Some argue he is too soft-spoken to take on Harris in a debate. Others say that his more mild (compared with Trump) manner could be a perfect foil to the vice president. 
 
Why does this matter?
 
Politically, the Trump team does not believe a vice presidential pick will substantially increase the number of people who are *for* him. But they are hopeful that the right person could weaken the Biden-Harris team’s support in voters’ eyes with a contrast to the current vice president. 
 
In a much broader way, the pick could prove critical to how the American republic functions, should Trump be reelected.
 
As we saw in 2021, then-Vice President Pence broke with Trump and refused to go along with an attempt to overthrow the certified election results. That prevented a constitutional crisis. 
 
Currently, we see several of Trump’s potential next No. 2’s going the other direction — reinforcing unproven notions of 2020 ballot fraud or refusing to say they will accept the 2024 results. 
 
Who Trump picks is important. But what those potential picks are saying right now may be just as important.