Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Tim Scott (RS.C.) are the two vice-presidential candidates who would offer former President Trump the most support if chosen as his running mate, a modern poll says.
A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released Monday found that 25 percent of Republican respondents said they would be more likely to vote for Trump if either Rubio or Scott the vice presidential candidate of the former president.
Including both Republicans and independent/other respondents, 20 percent said they would be more likely to vote for Trump if Rubio were the running mate, while 19 percent said the same about Scott.
Those numbers are higher than several other potential Trump running mate candidates floating around. Among Republican respondents, only 16 percent said they would be more likely to vote for Trump if Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) were chosen as vice president; 15 percent said the same for North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R).
When both Republicans and independent/other respondents are included, only 13 percent say they would be more likely to vote for Trump if Vance were the running mate; 12 percent agree for Burgum.
“Both Scott and Rubio appear to be good candidates for the vice presidency, [Burgum] and Vance would be much less helpful,” said Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll.
Rubio, Scott, Vance and Burgum are considered the favorites to run alongside Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. The former president said last month he had decided on a running mate, but it is still unclear who he has chosen.
The poll was conducted June 28-30 by Harris Poll and Harris X among 2,090 registered voters. It is a collaboration between Harvard University’s Center for American Political Studies and Harris Poll.
Results were weighted, where necessary, by age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party, and political ideology to align with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to account for respondents’ propensity to be online.
