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Former President Donald Trump has reportedly narrowed down his running mate search to three candidates, NBC News reported.
Trump will reportedly choose between North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) before publicly revealing his decision, according to more than a dozen sources with knowledge of the situation. Burgum and Vance are reported to be the two top finalists as Rubio remains in contention, but has raised doubts about his enthusiasm for the role, as well as a constitutional issue based on he and Trump both residing in Florida.
The 12th amendment, which was adopted in 1803, restricts electoral college voters from casting ballots from president and vice presidents from the same home state. Trump, a New York native, relocated to Florida in 2019 and acknowledged Rubio's "residency problem" while discussing the possibility of selecting him as a running mate via The Bulwark.
Earlier this month, Trump said he thought he'd reveal his running mate decision during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
“I think I’ll announce who that person’s going to be during the convention,” Trump said during an interview with FOX News host Sean Hannity. “I think that’s pretty normal — during the convention, it will be an interesting period of time.”
Trump previously indicated to News12 that his running mate decision would be made "probably not too much before" the start of the Republican National Convention, where he'll formally be named the GOP presidential nominee, scheduled from July 15 to 18.
“We have so many,” Trump said at the time. ”I don’t want to do that, we have so many.” “We have many people who would do a fantastic job."