Former President Donald Trump is leading the way in the race to secure the GOP nomination for the 2024 presidential election.
Along with polling ahead of his Republican competition for months, Trump has a growing lead in many hypothetical 2024 election polls against President Joe Biden, who is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.
What Happened: In April 2023, Biden formally declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race, seeking re-election.
"This is not a time to be complacent," Biden said in an announcement video. "That's why I am running for re-election."
Biden also tried to appeal for bipartisan support in his announcement video, saying the presidency shouldn't be a red or blue issue.
"Let's finish the job. I know we can because this is the United States of America and there's nothing, simply nothing, we cannot do if we do it together."
Since announcing his re-election campaign, Biden has been committed to having current Vice President Kamala Harris serve as his running mate.
Harris has expressed dissatisfaction with the responsibilities allocated to her throughout her tenure as vice president and has been conspicuously absent on several occasions during Biden’s presidency, according to CNN. Some political analysts suggest that Biden might need to consider a change in his vice presidential pick to enhance his chances of securing re-election in 2024.
The vice president is currently on tour helping to campaign for Biden, covering key topics like reproductive rights.
Related Link: Kamala Harris Says ‘Democracy On The Line’ For 2024 Election, Confident In Biden For Presidency: ‘We Will Win’
Biden's Potential Move: While some political experts have pointed to Biden selecting a different female vice presidential candidate from his own Democratic political party, a new possibility has emerged.
Biden could select Nikki Haley, who is a Republican presidential candidate, as his vice presidential candidate.
Haley is currently running against Trump for the Republican nomination, but is falling behind in the delegate count after early state results and is trailing significantly behind Trump in polls.
The most recent Morning Consult survey revealed that Trump has secured 75% of the support from nationally registered Republican voters, while Haley has received 12%. This level of support and the 63-point advantage are the highest recorded for Trump since the start of the polls in December 2022.
Trump's dominance in early states led to Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy dropping out and pledging support to the former president, leaving only Haley. Prediction markets have people betting on when Haley will drop out of the race, given her uphill battle to win the GOP nomination.
Betting odds for Trump's vice presidential candidate list Elise Stefanik, Ramaswamy, Kristi Noem and Tim Scott as favorites, with Haley also a potential VP candidate.
A current Morning Consult poll shows Trump with 45% of national voter support, compared to Biden at 40%. Trump is beating Biden in all seven swing states according to polls as well. Trump's lead over Biden in the most recent poll marked his largest lead dating back to 2017 for Morning Consult polling.
In eight of the last 10 weeks, Trump has ranked ahead of Biden in the national Morning Consult poll.
While Biden and Harris both appeal to Democratic voters, introducing a running mate who is Republican or more centrist could potentially broaden Biden’s appeal across a wider spectrum of the electorate.
A potential move to bring in Haley also comes as a report said Trump's team has explored having third-party candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his vice presidential candidate. Kennedy Jr. was previously running as a Democratic candidate before he switched to third-party.
What History Says: There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that prevents Biden from selecting someone from the opposite party as his running mate, but the unprecedented move could come with obstacles.
The Democratic Party would need to ratify Biden’s choice for vice president. Selecting someone like Haley might attract undecided or Independent voters, yet it could also unsettle the Democratic Party, considering Harris is seen as a likely successor to the presidency after Biden.
The current requirements for a vice presidential candidate are being 35 years of age, being a natural-born U.S. citizen and being a U.S. resident for 14 years. In fact, a potential vice president candidate could even be a former president who has served two terms, they just wouldn't be eligible to become president if something happened to the current president.
In the early history of the United States, the candidate who received the second-most votes in the Electoral College of a presidential election was named the vice president. This means that it was opposite parties that often held the roles of president and vice president.
The 12th Amendment later made it that vice presidents had to be approved with the president, which eliminated the automatic position of the second vote-getter receiving the VP role.
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