Donald Trump’s campaign has asked for personal information from more than half a dozen potential vice presidential candidates as the former president’s search for a running mate ramps up.
The Trump operation’s decision to seek to verify the records of potential candidates, which is typical for presidential candidates to request, shows that the former president has begun to focus on selection and resolve one of the biggest remaining questions in the 2024 race.
Requests were sent to the Ohio senator. JD VanceNorth Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, South Carolina Senator. Tim ScottFlorida Representative. Byron DonaldsRepresentative from New York. Elise StefanikFlorida Senator. Marco Rubioand former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, according to three people with knowledge of the deliberations who were granted anonymity to speak about internal matters.
Requests for information were previously reported by NBC News It is ABC news.
On Tuesday night, Trump told Greg Kelly on Newsmax that he has “some unbelievable people” in consideration and began rattling off the names of some of his top surrogates, including Scott, Burgum, Rubio, Vance and Carson.
However, one candidate has seen her prospects fade: South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who has weathered a storm after it emerged that she had written in a newly published memoir that she had shot and killed her little dog. In the same book, she erroneously stated that she met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
The former president said there is a “good chance” he will announce his vice presidential pick around the time of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in mid-July. During the 2016 campaign, Trump announced then-Indiana governor Mike Pence just days before the nominating convention began.
“Anyone who claims to know who or when President Trump will choose his vice president is lying, unless the person is named Donald J. Trump,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Trump campaign.
Trump’s vice presidential candidates have taken aggressive steps to distinguish yourselfsuch as doing interviews with national media outlets, raising funds for the former president and attending his secret trial in New York.
Vance, a former venture capitalist, helped organize a fundraiser in Silicon Valley that Trump will attend on Thursday night. Scott, who is also trying to demonstrate his fundraising skills, is scheduled to host a donor conference on June 19 in Washington that is expected to draw major contributors.
Trump has been closely monitoring what potential picks have done to help his campaign, according to a person familiar with the selection process, and has continued to ask the opinions of those around him.
After Trump’s guilty verdict was handed down by a Manhattan judge last week, he asked some of his wealthiest donors for ideas about who he should choose as his running mate. According to supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, a Republican donor who was at the fundraising dinner, attendees’ top picks included Scott, Burgum, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump’s former primary rival Nikki Haley because she “could make a difference.” .”
Trump, however, said publicly that Haley would not be his running mate.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the previous headline by Ben Carson.
