Donald Trump is in the early stages of his hunt for a dynamic running mate to complement his own resume and complete the Republican presidential ticket. But don’t expect him to reveal his VP pick anytime soon.
In an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, hours after Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus declared him the presumptive nominee, Trump said he has begun the vice presidential vetting process and will likely announce his selection shortly before the convention.
Delaying his vice presidential pick until July is both a wise decision and fitting for a candiate who is fond of keeping the media guessing, according to veteran GOP strategist Ford O’Connell.
“As a presidential candidate you only have three times you can control the narrative, the day you announce your candidacy, the day you accept the nomination and the day you announce your vice president,” O’Connell told the Washington Examiner.
“So this is going to be a card that he’s going to want to keep very close to his vest before his campaign knows exactly what direction they want to go against Hillary in the general election,” he added.
Trump is reportedly searching for someone who brings talents to the table that differ from his own, namely political experience.
“I’m more inclined to go with a political person. I have business very much covered,” he told the Times.
In addition to considering seasoned political professionals, a source close to the Trump campaign said the candidate is being urged to look at individuals who have existing appeal among the demographics Trump has struggled with in the primary: Unmarried women and Hispanics.
“If he picks a white male, what he’s aiming for is to win a certain state — mainly Florida or Ohio — more than anything else ,” O’Connell said.
One person who fits that bill is Trump’s last-standing opponent, Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
The two-term governor plans to suspend his presidential bid Wednesday evening, and has repeatedly said he’s not interested in running at the bottom of the GOP ticket, but that hasn’t stopped party elders like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich from making the suggestion.
“I think the most obvious vice presidential nominee is John Kasich for a very simple fact,” Gingrich said last month. “No Republican has ever won the White House without Ohio. ”
O’Connell argued that Kasich’s repeated dismissal of becoming someone’s running mate is “what any politician would do who wants the position.”
“If you want to be No. 2 you never mention it. It makes you a lot more attractive that way,” he said.
Later Wednesday, Trump himself told CNN that he would be “interested in vetting” the Ohio governor.
“I like John, had a good relationship with John and have gotten along with him well,” he said.
Donald Trump says he would be interested in vetting John Kasich as his VP pick. pic.twitter.com/9JOBEKfG2j— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 4, 2016
Another battleground state figure whose name has been floated is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. The first-term senator exited the 2016 race in mid-March and decided against a Senate re-election bid long before that.
“Trump can scramble the map all he wants, but if he can’t win Florida the game is over,” O’Connell said, adding that “Rubio’s charismatic, Hispanic and knowledgeable on foreign policy, which would put more in the foreign policy community at bay.”
But a source who worked closely with the senator on his presidential campaign described a “Trump-Rubio” ticket as “short of crazy.”
” No one hit Trump harder in the primary than Rubio did,” the source said. “Rubio wouldn’t do it and he seems to be enjoying the Senate since he left the campaign trail. ”
Others whose names have repeatedly been mentioned in the Republican “veepstakes” include Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who endorsed Trump after his victory in the Sunshine State; Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who was elected to the Senate in 2014 on a personal and populist message similar to Trump’s; South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a staunch critic of Trump’s, but someone who could boost Republicans’ favorability ratings among women and minorities; and Gingrich, who’s consistently defended Trump against scrutiny, has decades of experience in Washington and is a respected figure in establishment circles.
Trump announced Wednesday that he’s put ex-White House hopeful Ben Carson in charge of the committee tasked with vetting potential vice presidential picks, but refused to disclose the names of any individuals already on his short list during an interview early Wednesday morning with MSNBC.
With the nomination all but locked up and his full attention focused on Clinton, the last major decision Trump will make before he formally accepts the nomination is choosing who he wants to work with for the next six months, and potentially the next four years. “If Trump is going to win or lose this election, it’s going to occur between right now and July 18,” O’Connell said, referring to opening day of the GOP convention.
“[Trump] enters the race 60-40 against Clinton, so he’ll have to think long and hard about his plan to flip those numbers before November,” he said.
