Rubio, Tim Scott would give Trump biggest boost as vice president: Poll

Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) are the two vice-presidential contenders who would offer the biggest boost to former President Trump if they were selected as his running mate, according to a new poll.  

A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released Monday found that 25 percent of GOP respondents said they were more likely to vote for Trump if either Rubio or Scott was the former president’s running mate. 

When both GOP and independent/other respondents are factored in, 20 percent said they were more likely to vote for Trump if Rubio was the running mate, while 19 percent said the same about Scott. 

Those figures are higher than for several other widely floated potential Trump running mates. Among GOP respondents, only 16 percent said they were more likely to vote for Trump if Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) was the pick for vice president; 15 percent said the same for North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R). 

When both GOP and independent/other respondents are factored in, only 13 percent say they’re more likely to vote for Trump if Vance is the running mate, with 12 percent echoing that sentiment for Burgum.  

“Both Scott and also Rubio seem like strong VP choices while [Burgum] and Vance would be much less helpful,” said Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll. 

Rubio, Scott, Vance and Burgum are seen as the front-runners in the race to join Trump on the Republican presidential ticket. The former president said last month he has decided on a running mate, though it remains unclear who’s he picked. 

The survey was conducted June 28-30 among 2,090 registered voters by the Harris Poll and Harris X. It is a collaboration of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University and the Harris Poll. 

Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party, and political ideology where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.