Kellyanne Conway, a GOP pollster who helped lead former President Donald Trump‘s 2016 campaign to victory and later served as a top aide in his White House, shared her views on Monday about the Veepstakes.
A guest essay from Conway, published in The New York Times, argued that “who?” is less important than “why?” when coming up with the “most important” question for Trump when it comes to a running mate in 2024.
“In other words, the individual should complement, not complicate, his America First record and vision, and recognize the difference between loyalty-as-tenacity (yes) and loyalty-as-obsequiousness (no),” Conway wrote.
Conway, who noted that she recommended Mike Pence as a running mate in 2016, posited that Trump’s former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, as well as Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) or Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), could be viable picks when it comes to helping Trump wade through challenges both at home and abroad.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) or Rubio could be a boon to Trump in deftly navigating the contentious issue of abortion, Conway suggested. She also mentioned Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who dropped out of the 2024 presidential contest and endorsed Trump.
Conway said the “most popular suggestion” she had heard was that Trump should “pick a woman” as a running mate, as President Joe Biden did with now-Vice President Kamala Harris. Although Conway noted that Biden and the country “suffer daily the consequences of embracing identity politics,” she said there are “qualified, compelling” women that Trump could pick.
Among “accomplished young, elected officials who happen to be mothers of young children,” Conway submitted Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders — who served as Trump’s press secretary. There were also “experienced female elected officials/grandmothers,” including Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
A “push in some quarters” for Trump to pick his top remaining rival in the 2024 GOP primary contest, Trump-era U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, “rests on the false belief that she can somehow attract moderates and independents that he can’t,” Conway said, pointing to Haley declaring that she would have signed a six-week heartbeat bill as governor of South Carolina.
Conway also raised doubts that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis could attract more voters to a Trump ticket after his second-place finish in Iowa and ending his 2024 presidential campaign with a Trump endorsement.
The guest essay said Conway is not affiliated with Trump’s 2024 campaign, but Conway wrote that if she were advising Trump, she would suggest a “person of color … as an equal helping to lead an America First movement that includes more union workers, independents, first-time voters, veterans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and African Americans” rather than for “identity politics a la the Democrats.”
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Any list would include Rubio, Scott, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), and “perhaps” Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX), Conway said while acknowledging that “vetting of all possibilities and satisfaction of procedural issues like dual residency in Florida” are procedural issues that would need to be considered.
Conway said Dr. Ben Carson, a former neurosurgeon and Trump Cabinet member, is “currently a Trumpworld insider favorite,” and Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman who suspended his presidential campaign to endorse Trump, is “a favorite among some in Mr. Trump’s ear and on social media.”
The guest essay concluded with Conway saying Trump “keeps us guessing” and does not need to “rush” his decision. She added that Trump’s choice would ultimately matter for the November election, “fixing the chaos and crisis” left by the Biden administration and “eventually passing the baton to a future leader of the movement and center-right coalition he founded nine years ago.”