Yet Another Trump VP Prediction: Elise Stefanik
Texan John Nance Garner, who served as Franklin Roosevelt's Vice President from 1933 to 1941, described the job as being "not worth a bucket of warm piss" (changed in the media as "warm spit" due to Depression-era sensitivities). For most of our nation's history, the federal government's Executive Branch has been like a big, complicated machine with one essential part, without which the entire machine grinds to a halt - and the VP is the replacement for that part.
That explains why the Executive Branch isn't working very well right now; neither the part nor the replacement is a good fit for what needs to be done.
The 2024 election, though, is a bit different. Should Donald Trump win the GOP nomination - which looks likely - and go on to win the general election - not at all unlikely - his VP pick will be uniquely situated. Trump would enter his second, non-consecutive term as a lame duck, positioning his VP pick well to campaign for the 2028 GOP nomination. This may explain Elise Stefanik's (R-NY) apparent interest in the job, as the Washington Examiner's Conn Carroll points out.
When I first ranked former President Donald Trump’s top 10 vice presidential picks back in August, I had Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) at No. 3 behind Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Byron Donalds (R-FL).
But after Stefanik’s performance on Meet the Press this Sunday, I’m moving her to No. 1.
She was poised, confident, and well prepared. Most importantly, she didn’t give an inch when defending Trump on any issue.
That last bit is key for Trump; the guy clearly puts personal loyalty to himself very, very high on the qualifications chart. And Mrs. Stefanik has, indeed, been raising her national profile quite a bit lately.
But the most important thing to note here is that she has been asked if she wants the job.
And then finally, and most importantly, if she would say “yes” if Trump asked her to be his vice president: “I’ve said for a year now I’d be honored to serve in the next Trump administration.”
Coming off of her huge victories over the presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, Stefanik has significantly raised her profile among GOP voters. She’s young. She’s married. She’s a mother. She has ably served in House Republican leadership. She is a woman who has the potential to ease the fears of college-educated suburban women who abandoned Trump in droves in 2020.
There are, of course, other contenders who check off some of the same boxes - like South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
Last week alone, the South Dakota governor sent out a dozen tweets praising Donald Trump. She went on Fox News’s Hannity to condemn attempts in Maine and Colorado to remove the former president from the ballot. And she hosted a get-out-the-caucus rally for him across the border in Iowa.
The name left out here, though, is the name of the guy who has been on the debate stage, the guy who has been hitting the speaking circuit, the guy who has been hitting the left hard as often as he can, and the guy who is lusting after the VP slot like a wolf lusts after a sheep: Vivek Ramaswamy. He, too, has been overtly deferential to Donald Trump; he, too, has been defensive of the former president's policies; he, too, checks a couple of "diversity" boxes, if anyone's interested in that sort of thing.
Whoever wins the nomination will, if they follow the usual practice, announce the choice of running mate for the VP slot at the Republican National Convention in July. Until then, of course, all we can do is speculate, but the three people mentioned here sure look as though they are positioning themselves for consideration, and you can bet that all three of them have 2028 on their minds.
July, though, is a long way away. Yes, indeed, the game's afoot, but the VP slot isn't yet Trump's to offer.
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