
Donald Trump chose Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate, but it’s becoming apparent that not all Republicans were behind the decision before he made it.
The Washington Post reported recently that South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham tried to talk Trump out of choosing Vance while the two were flying to Milwaukee to attend the Republican National Convention.
Graham argued that the better choice for a running mate would be Florida Senator Marco Rubio. He tried to convince Trump that Rubio, who is Cuban American, would be able to attract voters in the battleground states better than the untested Vance would.
The Post cited other sources as saying that Graham even tried to recruit other people on the plane to come to his side and support his argument.
Just a few days before that, another one of Trump’s advisers argued during a phone call that not only would Rubio make a better choice than Vance, but so, too, would Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
That adviser was particularly concerned about past comments Vance had made about abortion and his opposition to it. The adviser even asked Trump how he planned to defend some of the positions that Vance takes that are a lot further right than his own.
Citing anonymous sources, The Post reported that many of Trump’s closest supporters — from donors to personalities in conservative media channels to high-ranking senators — made a last-ditch effort to lobby for Trump to pick Rubio or someone other than Vance as his running mate.
They all argued that other candidates would be more successful at attracting the additional voters that Trump is going to need to win the general election in November.
While the former president appeared to be open-minded to at least listening to those arguments, the sources said, Trump told each of them that his gut told him for many weeks that Vance was the right choice.
What the former president liked about Vance was his upbringing in the Rust Belt, his positions on economic and foreign policy, the big appearances he makes on TV and his academic pedigree.
Many influential people were backing Vance, too, including Donald Trump Jr. and some tech billionaires.
A major factor in Trump’s decision, apparently, was securing the future of the GOP in the former president’s image once he was no longer around.
Vance had what can only be described as a rocky first week as Trump’s running mate, as he attracted some unwanted attention to the ticket.
That being said, he has been outshined in the media by the fact that President Joe Biden has stepped aside and will not seek re-election. That has significantly changed the campaign, as Trump and Vance will now likely square off against Vice President Kamala Harris and a yet-to-be-determined running mate come November.
Trump has spent the last week trying to clarify some controversial comments Vance made in previous interviews, including when he mocked “childless cat ladies” and took positions on abortion that were much more strict than Trump’s stated positions on it.
How the Vance decision will affect the campaign and the election is yet to be seen, but there’s still plenty of time for him to turn it around.