It was widely seen as inevitable that Trump would seek the presidency again in 2024, and about the only thing that was certain was that Mike Pence would not be his running mate.
Of course, knowing this, it naturally had everyone asking: “Who would Trump choose as his running mate in 2024?!"
In the past, we’ve heard several names floated. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y), Kari Lake (R-Ariz.), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) were all under consideration at one point.
Last year, Trump’s former campaign manager and advisor, Kellyanne Conway, predicted that whoever he picks, it would be a woman. “I think if President Trump runs again in 2024 or whoever the [Republican] nominee is, it’s either going to be a woman if he decides not to run, or he’ll seriously consider selecting a woman as his running mate,” Conway predicted. “And not just a woman for woman’s sake because he’s never done that. A woman because he recognizes that we’re one-half of the country, more than one-half of the country, and more than one-half of the electorate, and we have to restore faith that women leaders in government can get the job done.”
Now, there is another woman that Trump has been eyeing as a potential running mate, and I suspect it will be a no less controversial pick than the earlier names.
According to a report from CBS News, Trump has been "asking allies and advisers for their thoughts about Nikki Haley as a potential vice presidential candidate":
The feedback from the MAGA crowd regarding putting Haley on the ticket if Trump wins the GOP nomination has been overwhelmingly negative, according to these GOP sources. Politico first reported that Trump allies are working to quash the possibility of a Trump-Haley ticket.
The former South Carolina governor has been gaining ground in recent polls, and a top Trump adviser tells CBS News one internal prediction is Haley might be a close third in Iowa to DeSantis, or that she could even come in second.
But Trump, in an interview Friday with conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt, blasted polls showing Haley performing well as "fake." He also insisted he's not worried about Haley as a challenger.
Haley has been touting her rise in the polls, telling voters in New Hampshire that she's "surging" against Trump. The latest CBS News poll shows Haley is gaining on Trump in New Hampshire, but the former president still has a big lead in Iowa. In New Hampshire, the poll shows Trump leading with 44% to Haley's 29%.
The prospect of a Trump-Haley ticket has MAGA allies up-in-arms, according to a report from Politico:
Within some conservative circles, there is an emerging belief that Haley’s potential electoral strength — polls show her leading former President Joe Biden nationally and in key battleground states by wide margins — make her a conventional choice to serve as a running mate. Trump allies have moved swiftly to express their concerns that she’s not aligned with his base. And they’ve done so with little subtlety; deploying a full-scale media barrage of anti-Haley attacks.
Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son, took to Newsmax to declare he would “go to great lengths to make sure” his father didn’t pick Haley. And Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News host who is frequently in touch with the former president, said on a conservative podcast this week that he would “advocate against” a Trump-Haley ticket “as strongly as I could.”
Republican strategist Roger Stone, a longtime outside adviser to the former president, told POLITICO that he too would be “personally opposed to such a selection, because I believe that [Haley’s] views are so antithetically different than President Trump’s views.”
Haley has claimed to not be interested in running for vice president: “It’s not even a conversation, and it doesn’t matter what candidate wants me to answer it: I don’t play for second,” Haley said earlier this week. “It’s offensive when anybody says that, ‘Oh, she wants to be vice president.’ You don’t do something like this to be vice president. You don’t sacrifice emotionally, mentally, physically with your family, everything to come in second.”
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