OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
It’s been reported that Trump is considering Desantis for his Vice President pick if he runs in 2024. But that’s far from a sure bet.
A poll taken in May gave us a glimpse from one state in which Republican voters are leaning towards a Biden challenger in 2024.
In a straw poll of attendees at the Wisconsin GOP convention, DeSantis emerged ahead of Trump as the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination.
Trump’s presidential victory in Wisconsin in 2016 marked the first time since 1984 that a Republican candidate had won the state’s electoral votes. The turnout percentage in the state, 66%, was the lowest since 1966; he received nearly 22,000 more votes than Hillary out of approximately 3 million cast.
It would make sense for Trump to pick Desantis as his VP if he believes the Florida governor could be a challenge in the primary.
In an interview in March, Trump implied that if he runs for president in 2024, he will not name Pence as his running mate.
“I don’t think the people would accept it,” Trump stated.
According to Trump, his differences with Pence are too great to overcome after the 2020 election.
DeSantis was overwhelmingly selected by Republican voters to be Donald Trump’s running mate in 2024, according to a recent survey.
DeSantis is the choice of 27 percent of Republican voters, compared to 15 percent who want former Vice President Pence as Trump’s vice president.
In third place came Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas placed fourth with 9 percent among respondents when asked which candidate they would like to see as Donald Trump’s Republican running mate.
From a possible border invasion to possible nuclear confrontations with China or Russia, Joe Biden has put this nation on a collision course with everything from a stagflation crisis to a collapsing financial market. The election in November 2024 is the only time we can prevent an irreversible decline in the American economy.
Republican candidates for the general election should avoid at all costs the acrimonious conflicts that are common in presidential primaries. The only way to avoid such havoc is through an uncontested primary, and the only way to achieve that is with a Trump ticket that is untouchable and unassailable.
Peter Navarro of The Daily Caller argues that “Trump’s VP must be not just MAGA-sympatico but a true populist economic nationalist cut from the same cloth as Trump. Two who should lead a list of prospective VP picks are former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.”
Pompeo weighs in with a heavy foreign policy advantage and clearly understands the existential threat that Communist China poses. DeSantis has shown courage and intelligence under pandemic fire. Of the two, DeSantis clearly wins the popularity contest with voters.
In the VP discussion, there is also talk of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. With no foreign policy experience, she might be far better suited at this stage in her career for a high-ranking cabinet secretary position.
Navarro says that those who Trump should not consider are “Nikki “Cassius” Haley along with Ted Cruz, who may be a good “conservative” in the narrow sense but simply does not have MAGA in his DNA.”
Among Republican senators who may be on Trump’s list of possible choices are Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton.
“Hawley likely took himself out of contention with his gratuitous, Mitch McConnell-coordinated hit on Missouri senatorial candidate Eric Greitens in March of 2022,” Navarro argues.
Tom Cotton is as pure a China Hawk as they come and largely in tune with the Trump agenda. Here, Cotton’s one big slam directed at Trump was a sniper shot at the Trump-sponsored First Step legislation, which has led to the early release of thousands of criminals in Federal prisons.
Cotton ridiculed First Step as “soft on crime,” but that attack may actually win Cotton points with Trump since that legislation was a Made in Jared Kushner fiasco — and the boss knows it. Yet, I would far prefer Cotton as secretary of defense and designated Pentagon cleanser as he may lack the charisma and charm to campaign effectively as a vice president.
Putting DeSantis at the top is the fact that he has raised more than $100 million for his re-election campaign, which makes him the first gubernatorial candidate in the state and possibly in the entire country to surpass that milestone.
Besides giving DeSantis a significant advantage over Democrats this November, this staggering sum also sends an unambiguous message to the field of possible Republicans running for president in 2024 that he is already a promising contender with deep support from both major donors and grassroots voters alike.
He has the kind of fundraising skills that “catapults him into the top tier of potential GOP candidates,” said Scott Reed, former president of the US Chamber of Commerce and a veteran GOP strategist.
Regarding Desantis’ fundraising Scott Reed says “He’s been asking for big licks — $5 million and $10 million per fundraiser — and he’s getting them and that’s a warning sign. DeSantis is the talk of every Republican cocktail party and every organizational meeting. His support spans the money class and the movement conservatives. And that’s a strong combination early in the game.”
A Trump/Desantis ticket would be extremely powerful given the ability of both to raise huge amounts of money to take on the Democrat-socialist machine in ’24.
Source: The Republic Brief