Rep. Upstate Elise Stefanik is climbing Donald Trump’s running mate list, sources close to the former president told The Post.
“He’s getting advocates at higher and higher levels,” a person familiar with the Trump campaign said of Stefanik, 39, New York’s highest-ranking Republican member of Congress.
“I think he has momentum.”
Trump, 77, publicly expressed admiration for Stefanik’s performance last month during congressional hearings on college antisemitism, which led to the resignations of Harvard President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill.
“He’s a murderer,” the 45th president said in approving Stefanik weeks after the Dec. 5 hearing, NBC News reported this week.
“Right now,” a source close to the campaign told The Post of Trump, “he’s looking for someone who can be as hard-charging as he is.”
Trump has no serious consideration of who will be No. 2, despite claiming he had chosen his running mate during a Fox News town hall broadcast on January 10 – a statement that drew attention from a concurrent CNN debate featuring his main contenders for the GOP nod, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
Rep. New York’s Elise Stefanik is beefing up the list of former President Donald Trump’s running mate, according to sources close to Trump. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
However, speculation has been rife that Trump would choose a woman to shore up his perceived political weaknesses — the same calculus that led him to choose then-Indiana Governor Mike Pence in 2016 to shore up support among evangelicals.
“Where does Donald Trump have one of his biggest problems? Suburban white mother,” the campaign source said. “Elise Stefanik from central casting and she makes a lot of sense.”
Stefanik, a Harvard graduate who was elected to Congress in 2014 and elected chairman of the House GOP conference in May 2021, is also one of the most loyal Capitol Hill Republicans to the former president — endorsing Trump’s 2024 bid days before he officially announced it. .
Trump recently called Stefanik a “murderer.” Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Stefanik is scheduled to campaign in New Hampshire for Trump next weekend, joining a list of high-profile surrogates including former 2016 candidate and former HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, former first son of Donald Trump Jr., and Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Tasik.
So far, Stefanik’s most prominent rival for the running mate slot is Haley, the 51-year-old former governor of South Carolina and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
Official Trumpworld has tarnished Haley’s potential, with Don Jr. went on record saying he would personally intervene to prevent his father from choosing his “global” opponent.
Top campaign adviser Jason Miller has also dismissed rumors that biotech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the 2024 race and endorsed Trump Monday night, would be a contender for the ticket.
Trump supporters at a campaign event in Atkinson, New Hampshire on January 16, 2024. Stefanik is set to campaign for Trump in New Hampshire this week. AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Stefanik has his critics, however, many of whom argue that he is not conservative enough to leave the presidency in a Republican administration.
“Stefanik is one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress,” argued a former senior official in the Trump administration, citing a Conservative Poll tally of ideologically significant votes that gave him an “F” grade.
“There’s no way the base is going to allow someone like him — so radically against what they believe in — to be on the ticket.”
Another knock against Stefanik stems from the fact that Trump can only serve one term if elected in November.
This argument says that Trump would be at risk of being overshadowed by a much younger potential successor – a fact that could affect other relatively young contenders, such as Ramaswamy, or those who have dabbled in presidential campaigns themselves, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, 60.
Some of Trump’s advisers have urged him to consider Carson, 72, who is known as a staunch social conservative with a low-key personality, over the other primary choices.
A source close to the Trump campaign said he sees Stefanik’s alleged weakness as a possible advantage in the general election against President Biden, who trailed Trump in the most recent national and state polls, due in large part to voter frustration with inflation and interest rates. high interest.
“There are a lot of moderate people in this country who will come to Donald Trump again,” the source said, adding, “He has the luxury of being able to do whatever he wants.”
Stefanik could also help Trump’s long-stated desire to win New York state — a possibility he considered during the 2020 election before suffering a 23-point loss.
“He has made it clear that he wants to bring New York and nowadays, with the problems in New York City, it seems possible,” the person said.
However, the final choice will be left to Trump.
“Only Donald Trump knows who will be his vice president,” a second source told The Post. “Whoever he is, he will serve the country and he will do well. Until he announces his choice, anything is speculation.
“Anyone who isn’t Donald Trump who claims to know ‘who was elected’ doesn’t.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
