By Jill Colvin, Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The largest winner of the Republican major season thus far, moreover Donald Trump, is likely to be Tim Scott.
The South Carolina senator failed in his personal bid for president. But his enthusiastic campaigning for the previous president has been producing buzz about Scott’s prospects as Trump’s potential choose for a working mate.
Scott performed a starring function in his residence state’s Feb. 24 major election, hyping the group about Trump at rallies and in interviews. During a Fox News city corridor, Trump, who not often likes to share the highlight, taped a section wherein he and Scott appeared collectively on stage in matching crimson ties, a visible that made them appear like they had been already a ticket.
“A lot of people are talking about that gentleman right over there,” Trump advised the viewers earlier in this system when requested who was on his vice presidential shortlist, pointing to Scott, who was sitting within the entrance row, smiling huge.
Trump’s march to the Republican nomination has introduced ahead a slew of vice presidential hopefuls. Some have been brazenly jockeying for the spot for greater than a 12 months now, flying themselves to Trump’s rallies and campaigning for him throughout early-voting states. If Trump wins the White House, he can be constitutionally ineligible to run once more, making his vice chairman an almost automated front-runner in 2028.
But any potential contender to affix Trump should take into account the political destiny of his final working mate, former Vice President Mike Pence. He turned a pariah amongst many Trump supporters for refusing to associate with Trump’s debunked voter fraud theories and for attempting to cease the certification of the 2020 election that Trump misplaced to Democrat Joe Biden.
Scott, 58, has refused to speak about whether or not he would have acted in a different way throughout the Jan. 6 rebel and sidestepped questions concerning the vice chairman’s function in elections. Scott voted in favor of certifying the 2020 outcomes and mentioned throughout a presidential debate final 12 months that Pence had executed the precise factor.
“The one thing we know about the future is that the former president, fortunately, he’ll be successful in 2024, he won’t be facing that situation again,” he mentioned in a February tv interview.
Trump has provided blended public alerts about his seek for a working mate as he closes in on the Republican nomination, saying at one level that he had already made his alternative, solely to later stroll that again. In an interview Tuesday with Michigan’s WJR-AM radio, Trump mentioned he was in “no rush” to make an announcement. He added: “I want to keep you guessing.”
Aides who as soon as insisted it was too early to debate the function declined to remark this previous week. A spokesman pointed to Trump’s public feedback.
Beyond Scott, Trump met Monday with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, whom he has mentioned is on his shortlist, at his Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida. She advised The Dakota Scout that the 2 had had “a good, long conversation” wherein they’d talked “a little bit about 2024.”
Noem has advised fellow Republicans that she could also be chosen as vice chairman, in accordance with two folks accustomed to the feedback who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate the non-public conversations.
The efforts have additionally been enjoying out publicly.
This 12 months’s most important stage on the Conservative Political Action Conference outdoors Washington had the texture of a actuality TV-style open audition. Among them had been New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who labeled her upstate congressional district “Trump and Elise Country,” and Ohio’s JD Vance, who has turn into one in all Trump’s prime allies within the Senate. Also showing had been former Trump rival Vivek Ramaswamy, who maintains sturdy help with the “Make America Great Again” base, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, whom Trump has hailed as “a superstar with a tremendous future,” and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake.
Noem and Ramaswamy tied for first in CPAC’s annual straw ballot, an unscientific survey that nonetheless provides a gauge of the leanings of the celebration’s activist base. ( Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Stefanik and Scott made up a second tier.)
Others generally talked about as potential picks embody Ben Carson, Trump’s former housing secretary; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who endorsed Trump after ending his personal bid for the nomination; Trump’s former press secretary, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders; and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
Aides and allies have mentioned Trump, who calls for loyalty from those that work for him, is on the lookout for somebody who can function efficient cheerleader and surrogate, but additionally somebody who gained’t overshadow him within the function. While Trump has expressed curiosity in selecting a girl, his marketing campaign can also be attempting to draw extra minority voters, significantly Black and Hispanic males.
Scott is the Senate’s solely Black Republican and speaks usually about his hardscrabble roots. He was raised by a single mom who labored lengthy hours as a nurse’s assistant to supply for him and his brother after her divorce from their father.
Describing himself as a “born-again believer,” Scott usually quotes Scripture at marketing campaign occasions, weaving his reliance on non secular steering into his stump speech.
People accustomed to their relationship say Trump and Scott have developed a powerful rapport. The two spent in depth time collectively on the street in latest weeks and have developed what South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has been pushing Trump to select Scott, not too long ago described pretty much as good “chemistry.”
Scott plans to proceed to marketing campaign on Trump’s behalf past South Carolina, together with appearances on Fox News Channel, the place he’s a frequent visitor.
“I want to do what’s really best for the country,” he mentioned when requested by The Wall Street Journal whether or not he was all for serving as Trump’s vice chairman.
Scott’s choice to endorse Trump got here at a vital second — earlier than the New Hampshire major in January — and was a serious blow to Trump rival Nikki Haley, who had been relying on the state to attempt to halt Trump’s march to the nomination.
At one rally, Trump joked that Scott “must really hate” Haley to decide on the previous president him over the onetime U.N. ambassador who as South Carolina governor had chosen Scott for an open Senate seat.
Scott got here to the microphone unprompted and mentioned, “I just love you!”
Scott ran a lackluster White House marketing campaign regardless of getting into the race with a large conflict chest and an optimistic message. The vice presidential debate is arguably a candidate’s most essential marketing campaign obligation and Scott obtained poor opinions for his performances within the GOP matchups, seeming to vanish from the stage.
But the senator has been much more animated within the surrogate function — a truth Trump has identified repeatedly.
“He has been much better for me than he was for himself. I watched his campaign and he doesn’t like talking about himself. But boy does he talk about Trump,” he mentioned on the Fox city corridor.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster mentioned he had listened to Trump “talk about how great Tim Scott is.”
“You’ve probably heard him say he makes a better candidate for the president than he does by himself. But that’s Tim Scott’s nature. He doesn’t like to boast or brag or put himself out. He just likes to talk about others and the issues and he’s very good at it,” McMaster mentioned.
Trump’s public affinity for Scott hasn’t gone away after the South Carolina major.
Appearing Thursday on Fox News throughout a go to to the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump was requested by host Sean Hannity if he would take into account Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for vice chairman. He turned to Abbott, who was subsequent to him, and praised him as a “spectacular” man who provided an endorsement months in the past.
Then, he shifted to speaking about Scott.
“He’s a very good man,” he mentioned. “For me, he’s unbelievable.”
Associated Press author Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”