Donald Trump’s campaign has requested personal information from more than half a dozen potential vice presidential picks as the former president’s search for a running mate escalates.
The Trump operation’s decision to vet potential candidates’ data, which is typical for presidential candidates, shows the former president starting to focus on a selection and resolve one of the biggest remaining questions of the 2024 race.
The requests went to Ohio Senator JD Vance, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson were reportedly granted anonymity to speak about internal matters, according to three people with knowledge of the deliberations.
The requests for information were previously reported by NBC News and ABC News.
On Tuesday night, Trump told Greg Kelly on Newsmax that he has “some incredible people” under consideration and proceeded to rattle off the names of some of his top surrogates, including Scott, Burgum, Rubio, Vance and Carson.
One contender, however, has seen their prospects fade: South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who faced a firestorm after it emerged that she wrote in a newly published memoir that she had shot and killed her puppy. In the same book, she falsely claimed to have met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
The former president has said there is a “good chance” he will announce his vice presidential pick around the time of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in mid-July. During the 2016 campaign, Trump announced then-Indiana Governor Mike Pence just a few days before the start of the nominating convention.
“Anyone who claims to know who or when President Trump will choose his vice president is lying, unless the person’s name is Donald J. Trump,” said Trump campaign spokesman Brian Hughes.
Trump’s vice presidential candidates have taken aggressive steps to distinguish themselves, including doing interviews with national news media, raising money for the former president and attending his hush money trial in New York.
Vance, a former venture capitalist, helped organize a fundraiser in Silicon Valley, which Trump will attend Thursday evening. Scott, who is also trying to showcase his fundraising capabilities, will host a donor conference in Washington on June 19 that is expected to draw large contributions.
Trump has been keeping a close eye on what the potential picks have done to help his campaign, according to a person familiar with the selection process, and he has continued to ask people around him for their opinions.
After Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan judge last week, he asked some of his wealthiest donors for their ideas about who he should choose as his running mate. According to supermarket magnate John Catsimatidis, a Republican donor who attended the fundraising dinner, the attendees’ top picks included Scott, Burgum, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Trump chief rival Nikki Haley, because they “could make the difference to make. .”
However, Trump has publicly said that Haley would not be his running mate.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct Ben Carson’s former title.
