As he races toward a likely victory in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, Donald Trump is turning the Granite State contest into a vice presidential sweepstakes.
Over the weekend, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, and New York Representative Elise Stefanik stumped for Trump at events in New Hampshire ahead of the primary. All three have been floated as potential Trump running mates.
Scott, who ended his brief and lackluster presidential bid in November, took the opportunity Friday to offer his full-throated endorsement of the former president, snubbing Nikki Haley, who also hails from the Palmetto State and appointed Scott to his Senate seat in 2012.
“We need a president who will close our southern border today. We need Donald Trump,” Scott said at a rally in Concord, New Hampshire, where chants of “VP” rang out through the crowd. “We need a president who will unite our country. We need Donald Trump. We need a president who will protect your Social Security and my momma’s Social Security.”
In a Sunday appearance on CNN, Scott was asked about “VP” chants and whether he was angling for the vice presidency. “The only thing I want is four more years of Donald Trump and a Republican majority in the Senate, majority in the House and the White House,” Scott responded. After CNN host Dana Bash pressed him on whether he was keeping the door “wide open” for a spot on a Trump ticket, Scott replied, “You can take it any way you want.”
If Scott is entering a de facto Veep sweepstakes, he’s joining a somewhat crowded field. Vance, who campaigned hard for Trump’s endorsement in 2022 and has been floated as a potential VP pick, told a crowd in Kingston Saturday that “if you’re undecided, throw up your hand. I want to try to persuade you.” Asked about his interest in the vice presidency, Vance suggested that he’d be a more effective asset for Trump in the Senate, but promised to “help him however I can.”
The Republican who has campaigned perhaps most vociferously on Trump’s behalf in New Hampshire has been Stefanik. (Like Vance, Stefanik is a former Trump critic turned MAGA superstar.) Stumping for Trump in Manchester, the New York Congresswoman parroted Trumpian lines on the border wall, the “fake” news media, and the legal cases unfolding against the former president, which she dubbed a “witch hunt.”
At a rally the previous day, Trump cooed over Stefanik’s starring role in the December House hearing on antisemitism in higher education. “Elise became very famous,” Trump said. “Wasn’t it beautiful?”
“I’d be honored to serve in the Trump administration in any capacity,” Stefanik told The Washington Post on Saturday, adding that she’s “focused on being a surrogate.” Stefanik also said she’s friends with her fellow GOP legislators who are considered potential Trump running mates. “We are showing a full-court press,” she said.
Ahead of the first Republican nominating contest in Iowa, which he ultimately won handily, Trump similarly enlisted a group of potential veep picks as campaign surrogates, including Georgie Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, and North Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, The New York Times reported.
Trump famously hemmed and hawed over his vice presidential pick in 2016, only settling on Mike Pence in July of that campaign season, just days before the Republican National Convention. But in an appearance on Fox News earlier in January, Trump teased that he already knew who he planned to pick. Asked who it might be, Trump replied, “I can’t tell you that really.”
Jack McCordick
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