(TND) — Some contenders to be former President Donald Trump's running mate will be rubbing shoulders with him this weekend at a donor event in Florida.
Fox News reported it had gotten ahold of an agenda for the donor event in Palm Beach showing Sen. Tim Scott, Sen. J.D. Vance, Sen. Marco Rubio, Gov. Doug Burgum, Gov. Kristi Noem, Rep. Elise Stefanik, Rep. Byron Donalds, and Vivek Ramaswamy are going to be in attendance.
Former Trump cabinet secretary Dr. Ben Carson has also popped up as a possible running mate, according to media reports.
“I don't think there's a single front-runner at this point, because I don't ... get the feeling that a decision has been made or that a decision is close to being made,” University of Oklahoma politics professor Tyler Johnson said Friday.
But there has been a group of “more steady contenders,” Johnson said.
He’d put Scott, Stefanik and Burgum in that bucket.
“Up until about seven days ago, I (also) would have said Kristi Noem,” he said.
Noem, it appears, may have seen her candidacy take a hit after writing in an upcoming book about shooting an unruly hunting dog. The backlash might’ve knocked her out of contention.
“There have been ebbs and flows in that list, obviously,” Johnson said.
But, he said, those nine people seem to be the only ones really in the running to be Trump’s running mate.
Could there be a dark horse candidate?
“It is Donald Trump,” he said. “So, we should sort of expect the unexpected in some of these cases.”
The 58-year-old South Carolina senator ran for president this cycle but dropped out in the fall and endorsed Trump.
Johnson said Scott has been on a “charm offensive to try to prove his loyalty to the former president.”
Scott is the highest-ranking Black person in the party, and he’s served for over a decade in both the House and Senate.
Scott “checks a lot of the boxes” for what has historically made a good running mate, Johnson said.
And he could be the pick if Trump decides he wants a sort of demographic additive to the ticket, Johnson said.
“If Trump's looking to make that demographic play, you start thinking about does Tim Scott or Byron Donalds get you any advance movement into African American voters who are on the fence,” Johnson said.
The 45-year-old former Florida state lawmaker has served for several years now in the U.S. House.
He tried but failed to replace ousted House speaker Kevin McCarthy last fall.
“I think maybe there was more Donalds talk around the sort of tumultuous period with the various speaker battles in the House, because he sort of naturally was a part of some of those votes, but also got a good deal of press at that point,” Johnson said.
Vance, 39, is a freshman senator from Ohio.
He’s also a former Marine and wrote the bestselling book “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Johnson called Vance “a fresh face in the Senate (who) might get a little bit of that sort of outsider cred as well, given his literary and public speaking history there, too.”
The three-term senator from Florida attempted a presidential run in 2016.
Rubio, 52, is the son of Cuban immigrants.
He’d make history as the first Latino on a national ticket, USA Today reported.
The 67-year-old governor of North Dakota could be the pick if Trump wants to double down on his own profile, Johnson said.
Both have businessman, outsider personas, he said.
Burgum has been governor since 2016 and ran a presidential campaign that ended in December.
Stefanik in 2014 became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.
Now, the 39-year-old New Yorker is in her fifth term and part of the House Republican leadership.
Johnson said the Trump camp might see Stefanik as someone who can help turn out the female vote, but she might also be a detriment if she’s seen as a Washington insider.
“This is going to be an incredibly close election,” Johnson said. “Is there a world in which this choice could peel off a small percentage of voters here?”
Carson, 72, served as the secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Trump.
He’s also a pediatric neurosurgeon and ran for president in 2016.
Johnson said Trump could “still get a bit of that outsider profile there as well” if he picked Carson.
The 38-year-old tech entrepreneur and author ran for president this cycle but dropped out of the race in January.
Ramaswamy has been a vocal supporter of Trump. But Johnson said he hasn’t heard much buzz about a Ramaswamy selection lately.
Noem, 52, is a rancher, farmer, small business owner and two-term governor of South Dakota.
She’s also a former House member and state lawmaker.
When could we learn Trump’s pick?
Johnson said his best guess is late June or early July as a lead-up to the Republican National Convention from July 15-18.
“Obviously you have to make the choice before you head to that convention,” he said. “You'd want to get a few news cycles out of the choice.”
On Thursday, Trump said he'd pick his vice president before the RNC when asked outside a New York courtroom.
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