A new poll finds that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) are the two vice presidential candidates who would give Donald Trump the biggest boost if he were selected as his running mate.
A Harvard CAPS-Harris poll released Monday found that 25% of Republican respondents said they would be more likely to vote for Trump if either Rubio or Scott were the former president’s running mate.
Considering both Republican and Independent/Other respondents, 20% said they would be more likely to vote for Trump if Rubio was the vice presidential nominee, and 19% said the same about Scott.
Those figures are higher than those of several other candidates widely floated as Trump’s running mate: Just 16% of Republican respondents said they would likely vote for Trump if Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) were the running mate, as did 15% for North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R-North Dakota).
Considering both Republicans and Independents/Other respondents, only 13% said they would be more likely to vote for Trump if Vance were the vice presidential nominee, while 12% said the same for Burgum.
“Both Scott and Rubio seem like strong contenders for vice president, [Burgum] “Vance won’t be much help either,” said Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.
Rubio, Scott, Vance and Burgum are seen as the four front-runners in the race to join Trump as the Republican presidential nominee. Trump said last month that he had chosen his running mate, but it remains unclear who he will choose.
The survey was conducted by the Harris Poll and HarrisX among 2,090 registered voters from June 28 to June 30. It is a collaboration between the Center for the Study of American Politics at Harvard University and the Harris Poll.
Results were weighted as necessary by gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, education, political party, and age within political ideology to align with actual population proportions. Propensity score weighting was also adjusted for respondents’ online propensity.
