Trump’s Hints Reveal Strategy for Choosing a Running Mate

Former President Donald Trump is likely to choose a running mate who is qualified to hold the Oval Office and whom the former president believes he can work with effectively. A coterie of close advisers have urged him also to make the choice politically expedient by naming either a woman or a black man.

Although President Trump has been cagey about revealing his thoughts on the matter, his 2016 choice and names offered by campaign confidants offer a handful of clues. Given his notable penchant for surprise and misdirection, it’s impossible to say who the frontrunners may be.

Yet the former president’s public statements and prior record give an insight into the factors that play into his decision.

The Trump Way

Presidential running mates are often chosen based on political expediency. Nominations were made with one factor in mind: broadening the appeal of the presidential candidate. Vice presidents held little authority other than serving as president of the Senate.

George W. Bush altered that strategy in 2000, selecting former congressman and cabinet member Dick Cheney. As vice president, Mr. Cheney had an expanded role that included advising the president and providing much of the justification for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

President Trump appeared to employ a hybrid strategy in his first term with the selection of then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.

Mr. Pence, well known for his Christian faith, offered a clear political advantage in appealing to evangelical voters, who were critical to a Trump victory in 2016. Yet, from the start, President Trump appeared to have envisioned a strong working relationship with his vice president.

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Mr. Pence, when asked if he would consider joining the ticket, told a Trump adviser that he first needed to answer two key questions. “I needed to see if we could work together … and what the job description was,” Mr. Pence wrote in his 2022 memoir, “So Help Me God.”

Candidate Trump “loved [the] answer,” Mr. Pence wrote, and the two met for lengthy discussions at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, followed by a brunch involving family members at the governor’s mansion in Indianapolis.

Vice President Pence was an adviser to the president and was dispatched on numerous diplomatic, not merely ceremonial, missions.

This time around, President Trump has said that competence will be his main criterion in selecting a running mate.

“Who would be a good president?” will be the key consideration, the GOP frontrunner said when asked about the matter in a Feb. 4 interview on Fox News.

Previously, President Trump had said he was open to choosing a woman as his running mate but that that was not the overriding concern.

“I like the concept, but we’re going to pick the best person,” President Trump said in a Sept. 16 appearance on “Meet the Press. “But I do like the concept, yes.”

Broadening the Base

Several friends and associates of President Trump have privately offered him the names of possible running mates. One insider told Reuters that selecting a woman or a black man as his running mate would be “helpful” in attracting more moderate voters in a general election.

Possibilities suggested by Trump associates include South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Kari Lake of Arizona, currently a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

President Trump’s appeal to black voters has been increasing, as evidenced by a couple of recent polls. Some 17 percent of black Americans would vote for President Donald Trump, and 20 percent said they would vote for someone other than the two major candidates, according to a Dec. 12 survey by GenForward.

A poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College in November found that 22 percent of black voters in six battleground states said they would vote for President Trump in 2024.

Other possible running mates mentioned by Trump associates include Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C), and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who served as Housing and Urban Development secretary in the Trump administration. Both are black men.

President Trump is slated to appear at the Black Conservative Federation Gala in Columbia, South Carolina, on Feb. 23, the day before that state’s Republican primary. Mr. Carson is expected to receive a lifetime achievement award at the event.

Teasing the Public

President Trump has teased the public with hints about his possible choice but never made definitive statements about the eventual nominee or the timing of the announcement.

Asked whom he would nominate during an Iowa town hall meeting on Jan. 11, President Trump said, “Well, I can’t tell you that, really.” He added, “I mean, I know who it’s going to be.”

Less than a month later, the former president reversed himself. “I have a lot of good ideas, but I haven’t [decided],” he said during a Feb. 4 interview on Fox News.

During that interview, President Trump mentioned two potential candidates by name—Mr. Scott and Ms. Noem. In both cases, the former chief executive praised their willingness to campaign aggressively on his behalf.

“I called Tim Scott … and I said, ‘You are a much better candidate for me than you were for yourself,’” he said of the one-time candidate in the presidential primary election.

“I watched him in the last week defending me and sticking up for me and fighting for me, and I said, ‘Man, you’re a much better person for me than you are for yourself.’ Because for himself, he was low key,” President Trump said.

Asked directly whether Mr. Scott would be the choice, President Trump demurred. “It could be, it could be a lot of people.”

He went on to speak favorably of Ms. Noem.

“Kristi Noem has been incredible fighting for me,” he said. “She said, ‘I’d never run against him because I can’t beat him.’ That was a very nice thing to say.”

Former Democrat-turned-Independent Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii expressed interest when asked about speculation that Trump might choose her for vice president.

“I’d be open to that conversation,” Ms. Gabbard told “Fox and Friends” in an interview on Feb. 7. “My mission in life is to serve our country and serve the American people and find the best way to be able to do that.”

Ms. Gabbard met in 2016 with then-President-Elect Trump and his transition team to discuss national security matters. At the time she was said to be in consideration for a possible job in the administration.

President Trump has publicly said he would not consider choosing Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. or former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who continues to oppose him for the Republican nomination.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in August that he was not interested in joining a Trump ticket.

Ms. Lake said on Jan. 22 that she intends to focus on her run for Senate.

The Bipartisan Policy Center recommends that candidates begin vetting vice presidential nominees at least eight weeks before their party’s convention. The Republican convention is set to begin on July 15.

President Trump announced the selection of Mr. Pence as his 2016 running mate on July 15 of that year, three days prior to the Republican convention.

Tom Ozimek, Joseph Lord, and Janice Hisle contributed to this report.