Donald Trump’s long-awaited shortlist of potential Supreme Court nominees notably leaves out former presidential rival Ted Cruz and any of the Texas senator’s colleagues.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee on Wednesday released a list of 11 possible names he would appoint if elected president to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia in an effort to quell fears that he wouldn’t recommend a conservative justice.
{mosads}Cruz, a former Texas solicitor general, has been floated by Republicans as a possible nominee. When asked if he’d consider Cruz on the bench, Trump was hesitant and said he’d “have to think about it.”
Trump and Cruz bitterly fought in the GOP presidential primary before Cruz dropped out of the race after losing the Indiana primary earlier this month.
“There’s a whole question of uniting and there’s a whole question as to temperament,” Trump told the Daily Mail. “He’s certainly a smart guy, but there’s also a temperament issue.”
Cruz said last week he wasn’t interested in being nominated to the Supreme Court.
“That is not a desire of my heart,” Cruz told WBAP in Texas. “I have had several opportunities in the past to go to the bench, and I certainly deeply respect the job the justices do.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) was another senator touted by conservatives as a possible replacement. Cruz said earlier this year that Lee, one of his closest allies in the Senate, would “look pretty good” on the Supreme Court.
Trump’s list includes a handful of judges typically found on conservative wish lists, including appellate judges Diane Sykes and William Pryor, two names previously floated by Trump as model jurists.
The list also includes Utah’s Thomas Lee, the brother of Sen. Mike Lee (R); as well as Michigan’s Raymond Kethledge and Joan Larsen, Minnesota’s David Stras, Iowa’s Steven Colloton, Colorado’s Allison Eid and Missouri’s Raymond Gruender.