A wildcard just got thrown into the mix for a possible Donald Trump VP.
Tulsi Gabbard was announced as the keynote speaker at a Mar-a-Lago event next month, and the rumors have already started to fly.
Talking Points…
- Gabbard announced as keynote speaker
- Possible VP
- Analysis
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) blew up the Democrat Party on her way out the door. While clearly leaning more to the left than right, Gabbard split with the party on numerous key issues, siding with Republicans. For a while, she was being recruited to the Republican Party, but she just decided to leave office and then suddenly disappeared from the picture.
All of a sudden, her name popped up as the keynote speaker at a Trump Mar-a-Lago fundraiser on March 7, “celebrating the Constitution.” At $1,250 a plate, this is a big-time event, and the fact that she is the speaker for this event has fueled speculation that she could be on the very short list of possible VPs for Trump.
Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is the logical choice, but Gabbard also checks off some of the right boxes. Gabbard’s father is American Somoa, so this makes her a very interesting pick from the female side that could help Trump in the election. The early belief was that Trump really wanted a female as his VP.
In more recent polling, it showed that Trump picked up votes among minorities if Trump had a minority candidate. That clearly put Senator Tim Scott at the top of the list, at least in my opinion. But Gabbard also checks that box, as well as the female box, so this gets very interesting very quickly. To add a little more gasoline to this fire, Trump confirmed that she is on his shortlist of candidates.
Her harsh criticisms of the Democrat Party made her alluring to quite a few people in the Republican Party. For instance, she ripped Kamala Harris, stating:
“Kamala Harris is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with Washington and the Democratic party of today.
“We had a person running for president who she claimed to be very proud of her record. And so I took the opportunity to hold her to account for that and explain to the American people why she did what she did… Nothing happened to her when she smoked pot, but she was very happy to keep people in prison and put people in jail for doing the same thing.”
Gabbard went on to hammer the “woke” ideology of the Democrat Party, stating:
“To be associated with a party that is driven by this woke insanity, essentially opposing and undermining our freedoms, is not something that I could do any longer.”
I still believe that Senator Tim Scott would be the best choice for Trump, and while I was not high on Gabbard just trading parties and becoming a Republican, as a Trump VP, I think she might be very good. She would bring a calming voice and give Trump a different perspective on certain issues, and if needed, I think she would make a good VP.
The biggest draw for Trump, however, is that Gabbard would definitely draw a lot of moderate voters on both sides as well as independent voters into the fold. I would really like to see polling on this as to how she impacts his campaign, but I don’t think it is the worst idea for Trump to add her. If I had to rank the top candidates, I would put Scott in first and Gabbard in second from the current short list of possible candidates. They are the two that I believe would draw more support for Trump nationally.
