Elise Stefanik Is “at the Top” of Trump’s VP Short List: Report

Given the way Donald Trump treated his last vice president—i.e., siccing a bloodthirsty mob on the guy and then claiming he deserved chants calling for his hanging—you might think very few people would be jazzed about the idea of getting the number two job this time around. But—surprise! There are, in fact, many a Republican jockeying for the gig. Currently, though, it appears that Trump has his eye on one candidate in particular: New York representative Elise Stefanik.

NBC News reports that at “a candlelit dinner with Mar-a-Lago members in late December,” the ex-president asked his dining companions whom he should pick as a running mate, and when Stefanik’s name came up, he approvingly responded, “She’s a killer.” Since then, “Trump and a growing group of allies have started to look more closely at Stefanik as a running mate, according to eight people familiar with the matter, including people in Trump’s orbit, Stefanik fundraising bundlers, and former Trump administration officials,” the outlet wrote. While Stefanik has most recently been in the news for her questioning of three university presidents about antisemitism on their campuses, Trump has reportedly long been interested in her.

Per NBC:

Stefanik was on Trump’s radar long before that hearing, because she possesses one of the key attributes he’s looking for in a 2024 running mate: loyalty. That, mixed with her ability to drive the news on key issues, may be an irresistible mix for a vice presidential pick. “Stefanik is at the top,” said Steve Bannon, who was Trump’s chief strategist in the White House and the architect of his 2016 campaign strategy. “If you’re Trump, you want someone who’s loyal above all else,” a Republican campaign operative said. “Particularly because he sees Mike Pence as having made a fatal sin.”

Once a moderate Republican who worked on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, Stefanik shifted to the right and rebranded herself as one of Trump’s top allies on Capitol Hill after he won the White House in 2016. “She’s come a long way, and now she’s really, really with us,” Trump said during a lunch in the spring of 2022, according to a source familiar with his comments, adding, “She was kind of with us before, but she’s really with us now.”

Stefanik has made her loyalty to Trump abundantly clear over the years, including by:

Asked about the prospect of serving as Trump’s number two during an interview on Meet the Press, Stefanik responded, “I, of course, would be honored to serve in any capacity in a Trump administration.” On Wednesday, CNN reported that the GOP lawmaker would be campaigning with Trump in New Hampshire later this week.

Of course, nothing has been officially decided yet, and other names reportedly on the list include Arkansas governor and former Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders; South Dakota governor Kristi Noem; Senator Marsha Blackburn; and failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. Nikki Haley’s name is also said to be in the mix, though there are a number of people in Trump’s orbit who are dead set against her, according to Politico: