Kellyanne Conway, a former senior adviser to former President Trump, posited in an op-ed published Monday that he should choose a person of color to be his running mate upon clinching the Republican nomination.
Conway, who was Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and later his counselor in the White House, listed Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) among the options.
Conway wrote in The New York Times that Trump’s eventual vice presidential pick should be focused on who can help him win the general election and help him govern in a second term.
“With a crisis on the border, economic dissatisfaction, fears about crime, a parents’ rights renaissance and multiple wars and threats across the globe, Mr. Trump’s deputy must be able to navigate chaos and challenges at home and abroad,” Conway wrote.
She also argued Trump’s running mate would need to be able to “mitigate the damage and turn the tables” on the issue of abortion. Democrats have racked up several key electoral victories in the roughly two years since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade.
“Taking all of this into consideration, if I were advising Mr. Trump, I would suggest he choose a person of color as his running mate, depending on vetting of all possibilities and satisfaction of procedural issues like dual residency in Florida,” Conway wrote. “Not for identity politics a la the Democrats, but as an equal helping to lead an America First movement that includes more union workers, independents, first-time voters, veterans, Hispanics, Asian Americans and African Americans.”
Conway, who in 2016 advocated for Trump to pick former Vice President Mike Pence, wrote Rubio, Scott and Donalds would be on a list of potential 2024 running mates, as well as former Trump Cabinet official Ben Carson, Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who recently suspended his 2024 campaign and endorsed Trump.
Trump has said he has an idea of who he would choose as his running mate but has downplayed its significance to the results in November.
The former president is leading President Biden in national polls, as well as polling out of key swing states, like Michigan, Arizona and Georgia. Biden is leading Trump in Pennsylvania, according to recent polls there.
Conway predicted Trump “will keep us all guessing” with his eventual choice.
“One thing he doesn’t need to do is rush this decision,” she wrote, adding his running mate selection will matter “in helping to chart the course of history beginning with his chances in November, then fixing the chaos and crisis left behind from Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris, and eventually passing the baton to a future leader of the movement and center-right coalition he founded nine years ago.”