Pollster Mark Penn said in an interview this week that former President Trump “almost has to pick” his main GOP rival, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, as his vice president, an idea Trump has rejected so far.
Penn, the publisher of the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, told Politico that Trump struggles with Haley’s voters since most of them are disenchanted by the former president, a potential issue when the general election rolls around, when he is likely to face President Biden again.
According to Penn, there are two ways of solving the “problem”: Trump could pick Haley or Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who endorsed him last week and has been promoting the former president at various campaign stops.
“Trump has a problem, which is the Nikki Haley voters,” Penn told Politico. “A large percentage of them are ‘never Trump.’ … Does Trump have a way of consolidating them? It seems to me that Trump almost has to pick her as vice president. … He could do her, or he could do Tim Scott. … She would get that women’s Republican vote in the suburbs overwhelmingly. And that would be the end of the election.”
However, Trump threw cold water on the idea of picking Haley as vice president last week.
“She is OK, but she is not presidential timber. And when I say that, that probably means she is not going to be chosen as the vice president,” Trump said during a rally in Concord, N.H.
Trump won the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, beating Haley by more than 10 points, moving closer to securing the GOP nomination. Right after the victory, the former president attacked Haley, trying to pressure her to suspend her campaign.
The former South Carolina governor, who is hoping to have a strong showing in her home state’s primary next month, has used Trump’s attacks for fundraising. Her campaign raised at least $1 million after the former president threatened donors to her campaign.