Former President Donald Trump is looking for a new running mate for his third White House campaign for president after his first, former Vice President Mike Pence, was deemed insufficiently loyal in the final days of Trump’s presidency.
The candidacy of some Republicans vying for the spot could be complicated by their congressional service during his presidency, when they faced plenty of loyalty tests on votes for or against Trump’s policies and nominees. Those tests are tracked annually by CQ Vote Studies, which measures how often a lawmaker votes for or against the president’s position if that position is known when the vote is cast.
Trump’s reported shortlist includes four people who were compelled to cast votes for or against his position. The three senators under consideration broke with the then-president on just 4 percent of the votes they cast, though there was a slight variance in subject matter. A fourth senator, freshman J.D. Vance of Ohio, won his Senate seat during the Biden administration and was able to avoid these tests.
