Now that Donald Trump has become the presumptive leader to be the 2016 Republican presidential nominee he will turn his sights on a vice presidential candidate. The billionaire calls Florida his second home, he often spends time at Mar-a-Lago Club — the 125-room Palm Beach, Fla., mansion he bought in 1985 and later turned into an exclusive private club.
Now he may just turn his sights on picking a Sunshine State politician to be his 2016 GOP running mate.
The establishment wing of the party would love to see Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on the ticket. He could help Trump with both Hispanics and women, two demographics, the billionaire needs major help in convincing he deserves to be president.
But Rubio has indicated a lack of interest in the vice presidency generally and has yet to reconcile with Trump publicly. While the GOP establishment would love to see Rubio on the ticket, they have a big time sales job to do after the “Little Marco,’ remarks. But in politics you never say never.
According to reports in multiple publications including The New York Times and The Atlantic, Trump has Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who endorsed him for president, is getting serious consideration for the spot. In The New York Times, interview Trump praised three governors as possible contenders,” including Scott. The other two names Trump listed were New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of the first major Republicans to endorse Trump, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has yet to officially get out of the race.
The conservative National Review, columnist Jim Geraghty said Scott “might be the most intriguing choice” for Trump’s running mate. “Scott won two exceptionally nasty, hard-fought gubernatorial races and could lock up the state for Trump — giving him a win that John McCain and Mitt Romney could not achieve,” Geraghty penned in The Atlantic. “Scott’s a relatively low-key, even-tempered figure among Trump endorsers; he may not have an overwhelming personality, but he isn’t likely to do much harm.”
The governor has kept up an ambitious travel schedule that would seem aimed at raising his national profile. Scott went to California, one of several job-poaching trips he’s taken to states with Democratic governors. Over the weekend, he attended the White House Correspondents Dinner, one of the biggest annual social events in the nation’s capital.
There are no doubt questions about how Gov. Scott, might be able to help Trump. Scott has long been a divisive governor in Florida. In the most recent Quinnipiac University Poll to survey Floridians’ attitudes about Scott — taken in October — 41 percent of voters approved of the governor’s performance, compared to 47 percent who disapproved.
In an interview with reporters last week Scott Arceneaux, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, had a simple response to the prospect of a Trump-Scott ticket, according to a spokesman: “We could not be so lucky.”
Trump is also looking at a number of other possibilities including governors, Chris Christie of New Jersey, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who is advising Trump on foreign policy, said he would send his personal tax information to the Trump campaign if it wanted to vet him.
One name that keeps coming up is South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, the only black Republican member of the senate. Scott, whose appeal as a black Republican could be an advantage for Trump, repeatedly sidestepped whether he would be willing to be on the ticket. Finally, asked if he would not rule himself out, he replied, “I’m not ruling myself in or out.”
Trump won’t name a running mate until mid-June before the convention and after he secures the 1,237 delegates needed to win on the first ballot.
