Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton is being considered as a possible running mate for President Trump.
The Army veteran, who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars before becoming a rising star in Republican politics, had been seen as a leading contender for the vice presidential nomination since endorsing the former president in early January, two weeks before the Iowa caucuses.
However, there have been a series of reports about the senator in recent days following reports last week that he may be high on President Trump’s list of possible Republican vice presidential candidates.
Little was said about Cotton’s serious consideration of running for the White House himself in 2024 before abandoning the idea in late 2022.
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Senator Tom Cotton listens as President Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on August 2, 2017. (Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
After winning a resounding victory in Republican-leaning Arkansas in the 2020 Senate election, Cotton spent much of his time campaigning for Republican candidates in the 2021 and 2022 midterm elections, including multiple visits to Iowa and New Hampshire, two states that have been at the forefront of the Republican presidential nominating calendar for half a century.
The senator also stepped up his fundraising and political activities and published a book on military history that increased his national profile.
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However, just days before the 2022 midterm elections, Cotton announced he would not run for president in 2024.
And in his first interview since announcing his decision to run, the senator emphasized why he didn’t run.
“Really only family was considered,” he told Fox News Digital.
Sen. Tom Cotton speaks with activists during a Republican fundraiser on Aug. 16, 2022, in Rye, New Hampshire. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The senator, now 47, and his wife, Anna, have two young boys.
“My sons are 7 and 5 years old — old enough to know and grieve the loss of their father, but not old enough to understand the purpose and why it was important and whether it was worth the sacrifice,” Cotton said at the time. “I’m confident that Republican voters will be able to find another candidate, but I know my boys won’t be able to find another father for the next two years.”
“Over the next two years, my 7-year-old son will learn how to hit a fastball and my 5-year-old son will learn how to read, and I want to be in a position to teach them both,” the senator added.
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But Cotton left the door open to a future run for the White House, stressing, “This decision is solely about the 2024 election and this time it is solely about my family. I will make a decision about future elections in the future, particularly when my sons are older and better understand why I do this job and what it means for them and for this country.”
At the time, he also said he would consider working in a Republican administration.
“Under the appropriate circumstances, if a Republican president asked me to consider such a job, I would certainly consider it any time a president asks me to serve the nation,” Cotton said.
On May 23, 2024, former President Trump held a rally in the Bronx, New York City, a strongly Democratic borough. (Spencer Pratt/Getty Images)
Nearly two years later, Cotton told Fox News’ Bret Baier last week that he’s had several conversations with Trump about “what it would take to win the election in November, to elect President Trump to another term in the White House, to elect a Republican Congress and begin to repair the damage that Joe Biden’s presidency has done to this country.”
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But the senator said he has not been contacted by Trump or his campaign about being tapped as vice presidential nominee.
“I suspect only Donald Trump knows who is really on the shortlist,” Cotton added in an interview on Fox News’ “Special Report.”
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