'There are no deals': How Trump’s VP selection may throw a wrench in GOP dreams of a MAGA Senate

03 July 2024

Depending on who former President Donald Trump selects as his 2024 running mate, partisan control of the U.S. Senate could become a factor given that two of his finalists are from states whose governors have butted heads with the ex-president.

According to CNN, Senate math may factor into whether Trump chooses Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) or someone else entirely. Both of those states stipulate that should one of their two U.S. Senate seats experience a vacancy, the governor will appoint a replacement until the next election. And even though they're both Republicans, both Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine have had public spats with Trump in the recent past, meaning that whoever they may appoint to replace Rubio or Vance may not be appropriately pro-Trump enough for the MAGA base.

"There are no deals, and he’s not going to trade a Senate seat to help Marco,” an unnamed DeSantis fundraiser told CNN. “I don’t know that he cares about getting back on Trump’s good side that way.”

DeSantis' short-lived campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination came to a swift end amid constant attacks from the former president, who nicknamed him "Ron DeSanctimonious" and "Meatball Ron." Even after DeSantis conceded following a second-place finish in the Iowa Caucuses and endorsed Trump, the 45th president of the United States refused to let up, with aides telling Rolling Stone that they aimed to make the two-term Florida governor a "political eunuch."

"Trump privately insisted that if DeSantis truly wishes to earn his forgiveness, the Florida governor would have to 'kiss my a—, a lot," Rolling Stone's Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng reported earlier this year.

Gov. DeWine is even less MAGA-adjacent, and has publicly sparred with Trump and his acolytes in the Buckeye State's legislature on several occasions. Last month, when a technicality meant that President Joe Biden wouldn't appear on Ohio's 2024 presidential ballot, DeWine called a special session in order to pass a bill ensuring that the presumptive Democratic nominee would be added to the ballot in time.

"This is ridiculous; this is an absurd situation," DeWine said, calling it "simply unacceptable" that his Republican supermajority legislature failed to act to resolve the technicality prior to the legislature adjourning sine die this spring.

Unlike DeSantis, DeWine — who is a former U.S. senator — has notably not yet endorsed Trump's 2024 campaign for the White House. Republican strategist Mark Weaver told CNN that he doesn't think it's likely the Ohio governor "would make a decision based on what Trump would like or hate."

“I think he does what he thinks is best for Ohio," Weaver said. "He does not get caught up in the Trump clamor, much to the chagrin of those caught up in the Trump clamor.”

Trump hasn't yet announced his running mate, though he said he'll likely do so in the run-up to the July 15 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Click here to read CNN's report in full.

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