A Floridian may not be the easiest choice for vice president for former President Donald Trump, but that’s not stopping him from considering Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to be his right-hand man.
Trump has a long list of people he is rumored to be considering for the vice presidency, including Rubio, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), and Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND). However, the 12th Amendment may complicate his pick if he moves forward with Rubio.
The 12th Amendment prohibits a ticket with two people from the same state being voted upon by that state.
“The Electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves,” the amendment reads.
Because both men are Floridians, Florida’s 30 Electoral College members would not be allowed to vote for a Trump-Rubio ticket. Florida makes up about 11% of the Electoral College, and the 2024 general election is slated to be another close race between Trump and President Joe Biden.
But picking Rubio as a running mate would have a couple of advantages for Trump. Not only would his former 2016 rival give him in-roads with Latino voters, but Rubio’s position as a sitting senator would give the former president a chance to turn the screws on Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
Although the two Florida men have appeared to make amends following a bruising 2024 primary fight that featured DeSantis turning on Trump and challenging him for the party’s nomination, it isn’t clear that Trump has forgiven the governor.
If Trump selected Rubio as his No. 2, there’s a chance Trump would tell the senator to resign his seat in the upper chamber immediately, forcing a contest for the slot, instead of allowing DeSantis to appoint someone to finish out the term. This would mean Florida would have had both Senate races in the same year, which hasn’t occurred since 1936.
“Trump doesn’t want Ron to get a Senate pick,” a Trump adviser said. “And if Trump really wants Rubio on the ticket, he’ll want to make sure Ron’s pick is as short-lasting as possible.”
However much Trump might want to take a swing at DeSantis, the problem of essentially giving up Florida’s 30 Electoral College votes has deterred him so far.
“Trump respects Marco, and if it wasn’t for the residency issue, Marco would probably get it,” one Republican who spoke recently to Trump said. “[Trump] is concerned about it. He said Rubio’s people have a memo showing it’s not a problem, but I’m not sure he’s convinced.”
The former president could decide the juice is worth the squeeze and either change his own residency to New York, where he is staying during his hush money trial, or New Jersey, where one of his favorite golf courses is. But it’s unlikely he will step aside to make room for someone running beneath him on the ticket — or abandon the tax- and politics-friendly confines of Florida.
This isn’t the first time a president has considered selecting a fellow state resident to join him on the ticket, forcing a shuffling of addresses. A similar situation happened in the 2000 election, in which George W. Bush selected Dick Cheney to be his vice president.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We actually flirted with the problem in the 2000 election where both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had called Texas home in the run-up to the nomination,” said Robert Bennett, a law professor at Northwestern University.
Cheney ended up moving his residency to Wyoming to avoid a problem. The move was needed because Bush and Cheney won the election with 271 electoral votes.