More than a quarter of Republican voters surveyed say they’d like to see Florida Governor Ron DeSantis join Donald Trump as his vice-president should the former president make a run in 2024, a new Morning Consult and Politico poll found.
When asked who they’d like to see as the former president’s running mate, should he secure the nomination, 27 percent of respondents said they’d like to see Mr DeSantis take the job.
Falling behind Mr DeSantis was Mr Trump’s previous running mate, Mike Pence, who followed not far behind with 15 percent of the vote.
Perhaps a more surprising candidate to hypothetically join the former president on the GOP ticket in 2024 was Nikki Haley, who served as the US Ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration from January 2017 to January 2019.
This recent poll echoes a trend that’s been on the rise for the past year, Mr DeSantis’ popularity has soared within the Republican party. There are already T-shirts being sold with the pair of Floridians names emblazoned across the chest.
Mr Trump has yet to officially declare his candidacy for a 2024, but he’s had a keen eye on re-election, and importantly, who his running mate will be, for months.
In an interview in April 2021 with Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo, nearly a year ago, the president said he would “certainly” consider Mr DeSantis, adding that “he’s a friend of mine. I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocket ship”.
The same poll from Morning Consult and Politico also asked survey respondents who they’d support in a hypothetical 2024 presidential primary matchup, and the results were decidedly pro-Trump.
A majority of respondents - 56 percent - said they’d support Mr Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, and the closest politician trailing behind him, with less than a sixth of voters supporting him, was the former president’s aforementioned preferred running mate: Gov Ron DeSantis.
Despite the support that both men seem to have accrued within the Republican base, there is a potential stumbling block that could make such a pairing not feasible: that is, the Constitution.
Though rarely invoked, within the 12th Amendment it states that when choosing the country’s next leaders, electors shall not be from the same state.
“The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves,” the 12th Amendment reads.
And with both politicians having their primary addresses registered in Florida, at least one will be required to buy, even temporarily, a new home outside the sunny state to seal their running deal, should they decide to go in together.
