OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Following former President Donald Trump’s formal announcement in November that he was running for the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, speculation about his running mate has grown in intensity, especially after reports indicated that President Joe Biden would be running for reelection as well.
So far, no one has emerged as a ‘most likely’ candidate, but there does seem to be a pattern that has developed among potentials: They are all women. Politico previously reported that according to an unnamed Trump adviser, 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, in particular, might be emerging as a potential early contender for the No. 2 spot on the ticket: Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds was elected as the chairwoman of the Republican Governors Association.
Bob Vander Plaats, CEO of the Christian conservative organization the Family Leader, said Reynolds 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.”
In addition to Reynolds, media reports have also suggested Trump could be considering Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and New York GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik.
According to Robert Draper, a correspondent for The New York Times Magazine, Trump is eying Greene.
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, per the outlet. “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 went on to say that Trump has been seriously discussing Greene as a potential VP since February, and though he has likely considered others as well, Greene has another quality that may propel her to the top, the report said.
“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.”
In a September Foreign Policy story titled, “Elise Stefanik Is Most Likely to Succeed,” the authors detail, “A young woman once hailed as the future of the Republican Party embraces Trumpism to stay that way.”
Meanwhile, in late May, CNN published a report speculating that Stefanik is high on the “running mate list.”
Even more recently, yet another name has emerged as a potential Trump running mate: Former Democrat and 2020 presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard, who recently left the party to become an Independent.
The Daily Beast reported:
Eric Jackman, a friend of Gabbard’s and one of her earliest 2020 campaign surrogates in New Hampshire, said it was just as common to hear independent voters pine for a Trump-Gabbard ticket as it was for others to envision her on the ticket with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Jackman added that Gabbard’s background would resonate with a lot of younger and more independent voters who were looking for someone “who is of the 9/11 generation, served in the military and would be very hesitant to offer advice to a commander-in-chief to go invade or overthrow another country.”
He said he would be open to Gabbard being on the ticket with Trump or another Republican, depending on the Democratic nominee.
“Me, speaking personally, I’d love to see her at the top of the ticket,” Jackman told the outlet. “But if it meant her at the top of the ticket with another Republican—yeah, you know, my experience is people who are Tulsi Gabbard supporters are very past partisan politics, they don’t like partisanship, they don’t like to be pinned down by a label.”
