Dem
51
GOP
49
Running for vice president is a strange ritual, played by its own rules, the strangest of which is that you have to pretend you don't want the job. It is entirely possible that Donald Trump or his campaign manager wants a woman on the ticket. A woman wouldn't threaten Trump the way a high-profile man could, because Trump doesn't think much of women. It could also help win back some of those very desirable suburban women. Anyway, Elise Stefanik is actively auditioning for the job and so is Kristi Noem (see above). Now Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is giving it her best shot, although she missed CPAC. You know she wants it because she said things that get attention and then said: "Anybody that says I would do this for celebrity isn't paying attention or is just choosing to tell a lie." As we noted above, rule #1 is pretend you don't want the job.
So what has she been doing? Going around dissing former speaker Kevin McCarthy, someone Trump loathes. She said he is "a complete loser" and even better, he "didn't have the courage or the manhood to call me" to win her over before he was fired. Someone who insults McCarthy's manhood is catnip to Trump. She also cleverly endorsed him [Trump] over two other candidates from her own state, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Nikki Haley.
Mace is also going around saying other things that Trump loves, like complaining about the debt ceiling bill McCarthy negotiated to keep the government from shutting down. When asked about the chaos in the House now, she said it was just as bad with McCarthy. She likes to mention how little she likes Hunter Biden, always a crowd-pleaser with the MAGA crowd. She also loves to play the Horatio Alger card, noting that she dropped out of school at 17 after a classmate raped her and now she is a twice-divorced single mom with two teenage boys at home at 46 because she pulled herself up by her bootstraps and went to the Citadel.
Mace's district is R+7 so she can't be too strict on abortion. She says she would like to ban abortions sometime around 15-20 weeks, which jibes well with Trump's reported preference for 16 weeks. When asked if she would say yes if Trump invited her onto the ticket, she was slightly coy, saying: "Anybody would say yes." That is about as close as anyone can get to jumping up and down saying "Pick me, pick me," without breaking the rule of acting like you don't want the job.
But Mace did note that her stand on abortion might help win some women over. She might have a point. In 2022, a 10-year-old girl in Ohio was raped and got pregnant. She could not get an abortion in Ohio because it was illegal, so she had to travel out of state to get one. At the time, CNN's Dana Bash interviewed Noem and asked her over and over if that happened in South Dakota, would the state force the girl to have the baby, and Noem absolutely refused to even address the question, preferring to talk about what a monster the rapist was. If Trump really wants to campaign on a national 16-week ban, Noem might be a drag on the ticket. Stefanik is also hard-right on abortion and might be almost as bad. Mace might be more compatible with Trump's view on abortion, and her life story of high school dropout to member of Congress might be compelling. But with Trump, you never know. (V)