Former President Trump’s relatively new status as a Florida resident is complicating the possibility of him picking the state’s senior senator, Marco Rubio (R), to run on the same ticket as him in November.
The 12th Amendment maintains that presidential and vice-presidential candidates running on the same ticket “shall not be inhabitants of the same state as themselves.” And, theoretically, Florida voters would be prevented from voting for a Trump-Rubio ticket.
“Florida is a big state and a state you hope to keep,” said Derek Muller, a professor at the University of Notre Dame Law School.
The amendment could be a headache for both candidates if Trump chooses Rubio as his running mate. But legal experts say there are loopholes to get around the rule, which many Republican strategists argue could be worthwhile given the background and experience the senator could bring to a potential ticket.
“It wasn’t long ago that [Rubio] there was someone in the conversation to be the future of the Republican Party. He adds a lot of advantages to the ticket,” said Florida-based Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “The negative here is the 12th Amendment.”
There is precedence for a presidential and vice presidential candidate working around the amendment. In July 2000, Dick Cheney moved his residence from Texas to Wyoming so he could run on the same ticket as then-Texas governor George W. Bush. Cheney represented the state in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1989. Cheney changed his residence to Texas in 1993, when he purchased a home in the state and resided in Dallas while he was president of Halliburton.
“The Constitution says that senators only need to be inhabitants of the state when elected,” Muller said. “So you can leave the state if you want, it just creates a different kind of cost and political calculation if you do it so soon,” he added, using July as a hypothetical date.
“And if you wait until November when you win, you have a lot of steps to try to take in a very short period of time to try to establish residency, which could create separate problems if Congress wants to challenge your qualifications, it could try to challenge,” he said. Muller.
Unlike Cheney, Rubio only has ties to one state, Florida, having served as a West Miami city commissioner, in the Florida House of Representatives, and as a senator representing Florida.
And some Republicans say Trump is unlikely to change his Florida residency, which he declared in 2019, despite being originally from New York and owning a business in New Jersey.
“I don’t necessarily think Donald Trump is going to want to take that risk with the way he’s been treated in blue state courts so far,” O’Connell said, referring to Trump’s recent guilty verdict in his crime of silence in New York. York. judgment.
According to the BulwarkTrump even acknowledged that “Marco has a residency problem.”
But there are workarounds for Rubio.
The senator will be able to declare residency in Washington, DC, as he will remain in the city during Senate sessions. Some experts point out that Rubio could theoretically establish residence in another state withlax residency requirements, like South Dakotawhere someone need only obtain a mailing address in South Dakota and spend at least one day in the state.
Rubio isn’t the only Floridian tipped to be Trump’s running mate. Florida Reps. Byron Donalds (R) and Maria Salazar (R) were also listed as potential candidates. And there are other Republicans considered alongside Rubio, like his fellow Sens. Tim Scott (RS.C.) and J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), along with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
However, Republican strategists and insiders say Rubio’s experience and high profile put him over the top. Republicans point to Rubio’s experience serving in local, state and federal governments, as well as his experience serving as chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The Florida senator could also have the ability to attract Hispanic and Latino voters in key states like Nevada and Arizona, given his own background.
“He will have an appeal to constituencies in some of these swing states that will decide the presidency,” said Justin Sayfie, a Florida-based Republican strategist.
Another constituency that Rubio has the ability to appeal to is Trump’s critics within the Republican Party, who voted for former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley over Trump in the 2024 Republican primaries. Haley supported Rubio in 2016 during his run against Trump, but Rubio supported Trump over Haley in 2024.
Even though she dropped out of the race in March, Haley managed to win a significant number of votes in the Republican Party primaries in subsequent states. In the battleground of Pennsylvania, Haley notably won over 16% of the vote. Meanwhile, in Arizona, another critical state, Haley won 19% of the vote.
And despite a very public feud with Trump during the 2016 presidential race, in which Trump nicknamed Rubio “Little Marco” and Rubio said Trump had “small hands,” the Florida senator has since embraced Trump while maintaining its appeal to more moderate Republicans.
“He’s someone the Never Trumpers trust,” said a Republican strategist speaking on condition of anonymity. “These Haley people would trust Marco Rubio.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
