Donald Trump's VP Picked by Republicans

A poll has revealed the candidates that conservative Republicans would like to see as Donald Trump's vice president, should he win the presidential election.

The former president and GOP 2024 frontrunner, who has led President Joe Biden in some recent polls, has not publicly announced who he would choose as his running mate in the presidential election but has hinted at his shortlist in various interviews.

But a straw poll of Conservative Political Action Conference attendees conducted for right-wing news network Real America's Voice has revealed two Republicans are neck and neck in the eyes of conservatives. Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, a Trump loyalist, and Vivek Ramaswamy, who also previously ran in the GOP primaries and has now endorsed Trump, both secured 15 percent of votes.

The poll was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates. The firm surveyed 1,478 CPAC attendees from February 21 to February 24.

After Noem and Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who ran for president in 2020 and has since become a regular on conservative media, got 9 percent of the vote share while New York Representative Elise Stefanik, who has been rumored to be on Trump's list, and Tim Scott, the South Carolina senator who dropped out of the race for the White House in November and endorsed Trump, both got 8 percent of the vote.

The poll comes after a Fox News town hall event in South Carolina on Tuesday, when Trump was asked by host Laura Ingraham about six possible candidates: Ron DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Byron Donalds, Kristi Noem, Scott and Gabbard.

"Are they all on your shortlist?" Ingraham asked.

Trump responded: "They are... honestly all of those people are good. They're all good, they're all solid."

According to a Morning Consult poll of 6,321 registered voters conducted from February 17 to 19, the Republican is at 45 percent and Democratic President Biden stands at 41 percent.

Presidential candidates typically announce their choice of running mates in the days and weeks leading up to the party conventions.

But speaking to Newsweek last week, Christopher Devine, an associate professor of political science at the University of Dayton, Ohio, and author of the book Do Running Mates Matter?: The Influence of Vice Presidential Candidates in Presidential Elections, has suggested we are in "veepstakes season" with regards to predicting who Trump may want to be included on his 2024 ticket, with CPAC a perfect time for potential candidates to promote themselves for the position.

"It is early in that process and I do not expect that Donald Trump will make his decision until the summer," he said.

"But that won't stop VP aspirants from auditioning for the role. And CPAC gives them the stage to do it."

Update 2/26/24, 04:23 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information about the polling methodology.