Who Could Trump Pick to Be His Vice President?

With Donald Trump poised to capture the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, the former president is effectively holding auditions for a running mate – and a growing list of vice presidential hopefuls is starting to surface.

Many of those hopefuls quite literally lined up behind Trump as he delivered a victory speech after winning the GOP primary in New Hampshire, where he easily overcame a challenge from former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley by 11 percentage points.

Yet Trump has said little about who is on his short list or even what qualities he’s looking for in a potential pick.

“The person that I think I like is a very good person, pretty standard,” he said in a recent Fox News interview. “I think people won’t be that surprised, but I would say there’s probably a 25% chance it would be that person,” he said.

Here’s a closer look at some of the potential contenders for Trump’s VP pick.

The North Dakota governor, another Republican primary contender at one point, ran on small-town, business-savvy, conservative-values charm. The investor turned politician, who shot to the top spot in his state’s government in 2016, used his personal wealth to sustain his short-lived campaign. He was on hand in New Hampshire on primary day, stumping for Trump and glad-handing with voters.

The Republican congresswoman from Georgia, who has made a name for herself as a firebrand, former Freedom Caucus conservative, has long been a staunch Trump ally and a central player in his grip over House Republicans and their agenda. She’s been calling for the Republican Party to fall in line behind Trump for months now, and attempted to put a fine point on that message ahead of the New Hampshire contest. “Not only do [Republicans] support President Trump, we support his policies,” Greene in an interview with MSNBC. “And any Republican that isn’t willing to adapt these policies, we are completely eradicating from the party.”

The former TV anchor and longtime Trump ally lost her bid for Arizona governor in 2022 – one of several high-profile, Trump-endorsed candidates who lost in the midterm election cycle. She’s been one of his staunchest supporters in terms of parroting his false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and even challenged the results of her own governor’s race. She is currently running for a Senate seat and has campaigned for Trump in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Shortly after dropping out of the 2024 presidential primary, Ramaswamy was on the trail with Trump, delivering fiery speeches across New Hampshire in preparation for the primary there. The former pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager, who at 38 years old was the youngest in the primary, is the son of Indian immigrants. He ran an aggressive campaign, staking out Trumpian or farther-right stances on issues like state-level abortion bans and affirmative action.

The South Carolina senator, who was first appointed to that position by Haley, is one of the most prominent Black Republicans in the country. Once Trump’s challenger in the primary, he ran an optimistic campaign about the American Dream, pulling from his personal narrative and focusing on the importance of faith and a good education. He surprised many when he dropped out suddenly two months before the Iowa caucuses, saying that voters were telling him it wasn’t his time. Positioned directly behind Trump as he delivered his New Hampshire primary victory speech, Scott showed his allegiance to the former president while managing to sidestep a setup to bash Haley, telling Trump, “I just love you,” Trump replied: “That’s why you’re a great politician.”

The New York congresswoman is the highest-ranking woman in House GOP leadership. Once concerned with keeping Trump at arm’s length, she made a household name for herself defending Trump during his first impeachment proceedings and for later castigating university presidents for failing to counter antisemitism. Now a Trump loyalist, she’s become an attack dog for his campaign on social media, and has told reporters she’d be “honored” to serve in Trump’s administration.

The “Hillbilly Elegy” lawyer turned author turned Ohio politician rode to GOP fame on the coattails of Trump – a high-profile candidate who Trump endorsed and actually won in the 2022 midterm elections, in which Republicans otherwise underperformed. Like others among the former president’s allies, Vance was once a staunch Trump critic, but he is now one of his most allegiant foot soldiers in the Senate.