The race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in 2024 is all but over. All that’s left now is the race for the second spot on the ticket.
At this point, Donald Trump’s vice presidential sweepstakes are not only likely to be even more competitive than the primaries themselves, but will also prove to be just as important.
Some may argue that whomever Trump chooses as his running mate will matter little in the grand scheme of things. After all, never before has a presumptive nominee so completely dominated the news cycle, the political scene, and the public consciousness quite like Donald Trump has. And indeed, whomever he chooses as Vice President is not likely to make a big enough difference in terms of electoral implications, and Trump’s overwhelming popularity with the conservative base means there are very few groups left at this point who would be persuaded to his side based solely on his running mate.
And yet, in recent days, speculation has arisen around one particular individual who, if the rumors are true, is the frontrunner to be Trump’s vice presidential selection for the rematch against Joe Biden. Although this name may run contrary to some of the more well-known, more controversial, or more firebrand choices, the individual who has been at the center of the most recent vice presidential prediction would be perhaps the most perfect choice that Trump could make.
The Myth of a Female Running Mate
When it comes to the 2024 veepstakes, there has been much demand for Trump to pick a woman as his vice president, ostensibly for the purpose of cushioning the blowback that Republicans have allegedly been facing after the long-overdue death of Roe v. Wade.
This, however, would be a mistake for a number of reasons. First, the abortion issue has been blown out of proportions and falsely attributed to a number of losses the GOP has faced since then, many of which had nothing to do with the Dobbs decision. Abortion was only one of many other factors that contributed to the disappointing midterm results and lukewarm outcomes of the 2023 off-year elections.
Furthermore, women – and White women in particular – do not need a pandering VP pick to convince them to come back to the GOP: They are already doing so in droves. The success of the national school board battle, and the cultural and social issues that have driven it such as transgenderism or Critical Race Theory, have already sent many women – mothers terrified for their childrens’ wellbeing – running back into the arms of the GOP, much to the ire of the mainstream media.
Lastly, trying to pigeonhole Trump’s vice presidential choice into a woman-only position, just as Joe Biden did to himself in 2020, forces us to choose from a relatively short and uninspired list of contenders.
The name that has been floated the most among picks of the fairer sex is South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem (R-S.D.), who is, at best, an overrated choice who was only made famous because of one decent speech she gave ahead of President Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech in 2020. Her actual stance on the issues, such as her surrender on the transgender issue, prove that she is not the kind of fighter needed for the job.
Other women who have received some speculation include Nikki Haley and Kari Lake. But no one suggests Haley should be taken even remotely seriously, as her rabid anti-Trump stance has not changed since her most vulgar comments about then-candidate Trump in 2015. As an unapologetic Neoconservative, her rabidly interventionist foreign policy is just one of many on the long laundry list of reasons why she should not be allowed anywhere near power.
While Kari Lake is undoubtedly a strong conservative and a loyal supporter of President Trump, the fact that she has not yet held any public office would nonetheless be problematic, and her selection would be seen as ideological doubling down, where such doubling down is not necessary as long as President Trump is at the top of the ticket. No vice presidential candidate, not even Lake, could energize the base any more than Trump himself. And lastly, considering that Lake has mounted her own bid for the U.S. Senate that same year, it would make little sense to pluck her right out of a race that she has already invested in, especially one as important as the Arizona seat that could contribute to a larger GOP majority next year.
A Rock in the Storm
All the rumors about a likely female running mate only made it all the more surprising, and pleasantly so, when new sources began pointing to a possible pick of the male gender, and a solid one at that.
The speculation began with a post from the X account “The Calvin Coolidge Project,” an account that has proven fairly reliable in its information while also maintaining loyalty to President Trump. The post in question said that “a source familiar with President Trump’s thinking tells me that Ben Carson is the leading frontrunner to be his Vice President choice in 2024 at this time.”
While this may be a rather unexpected development, a closer look at Carson’s resume, stances, and appeal make him perhaps the most perfect candidate for Vice President in 2024.
Carson possesses many of the same qualities that made Mike Pence a strong running mate in 2016: He is calm, reserved, soft-spoken, and carries himself with the aura of an elder statesman in a way that balances perfectly with President Trump’s more bombastic style. Also like Pence, Carson has a strong appeal to the Christian Right with his unwavering social conservatism.
However, unlike Pence and his 11th-hour betrayal of President Trump on January 6, Carson has always been, and still is, unquestionably loyal to President Trump. He was one of the very few members of Trump’s Cabinet to serve for the entirety of the first four years, and he has never faltered in his support of the 45th president in the years since leaving office. Even in the darkest of times, such as the immediate aftermath of January 6, or the brief period of time when Ron DeSantis’s polling numbers appeared to present an actual challenge to President Trump’s 2024 bid, Carson has remained a steadfast ally.
And despite serving for four years as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Carson still very much brings an outsider’s perspective to the table. Having been a widely acclaimed neurosurgeon for decades, he skyrocketed to political fame after his iconic Prayer Breakfast speech in 2013; he not only took advantage of this rise in demand for a Carson candidacy, but he capitalized on it to the fullest. Let us not forget that throughout the entirety of the 2015-2016 primary season, there was only one candidate who ever briefly matched, and even surpassed, then-candidate Trump in national polling for the Republican nomination: None other than Dr. Carson.
Carson would also surpass Pence because, in addition to being loyal to President Trump, it is clear that Trump is also loyal to him and has a great level of respect for the good doctor. It was apparent even early on in the 2016 primary season that Trump and Carson got along quite well, as they shared some memorable moments on the campaign trail even when they were still technically rivals. Unlike so many of the others who tried to challenge Trump that year, Carson did not hesitate to endorse the future president upon his own withdrawal from the race. The same could not be said for Mike Pence, in either 2016 or in 2024.
Perhaps most crucially of all, Dr. Carson has proven almost impossible to hate, even for the Left. Despite numerous successful smears of other Republican presidential candidates, as well as other members of Trump’s Cabinet, none of their attempts to attack Carson have successfully landed. It could be due to his warm and polite nature, or it could be due to his incredible life story, which is the embodiment of the American Dream and a true “rags to riches” journey. But in any case, in yet another improvement from Mike Pence, Carson is one of the very few conservative figures today who has managed to withstand all the slings and arrows of the deranged Left and the sycophantic mainstream media, emerging from such efforts almost completely unscathed.
A Gamble Worth Taking
As mentioned earlier, the idea of simply picking a woman in order to appeal to women voters is not only an oversimplification of that particular political dynamic, it is also ultimately unnecessary.
If there is one demographic at which the 2024 running mate selection should be aimed, it’s African-Americans, and specifically black men. While past attempts such as the Blexit campaign ultimately failed to improve the GOP’s performance with black voters, numerous recent polls, including from mainstream media outlets, have proven that African-Americans as a whole have soured on Joe Biden since he took office.
To be clear, it is technically not necessary to go out of the way to try to convince these same disaffected black voters to support Trump; just the act of not voting for Biden is already a net gain for Trump, one that could prove crucial in determining the outcome of the election, especially in states like Michigan (assuming that voter fraud is sufficiently dealt with). But, mathematically and electorally speaking, if those disillusioned black voters were to ultimately vote for Trump – especially if the percentage were as high as 20% as some polls have suggested – it would all but guarantee a Trump landslide that would even be enough to beat the fraud.
Dr. Carson is the perfect candidate that could draw black men to the Republican ticket in 2024. His life’s story – growing up in poverty, raised by a dedicated single mother, and ultimately achieving the American Dream through hard work and a consistent faith in God – sets the ultimate example for this particular demographic. Such appeal would only be strengthened by the sharp contrast that he would present to incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris, who is historically unpopular with voters in general, but especially with black men.
More so, the notion that Dr. Carson could draw in more black voters is a strong reason in support for choosing him, but it certainly needn’t be the only reason. Even if, just as in 2020, such efforts are ultimately not successful, Carson still brings far more to the table than just about any other potential running mate.
A Choice Worth Making
Some may counter that Dr. Carson, with his passive and soft-spoken nature, is not the kind of “fighter” that President Trump needs. While it is true that Carson is far from a firebrand, the fact of the matter is that if there is one person in the world who does not need his own “fighter,” it’s Donald Trump. He is his own greatest warrior and has proven more than capable of fighting for himself. What he needs in a running mate is a firm and loyal supporter above all else, and Carson is exactly that. All the other upsides to a Vice President Carson just make the case that much stronger.
No one is perfect, especially not in the world of politics. There are other top-tier contenders for President Trump’s running mate, but whether by virtue of already running in another race, or being from the same state as Trump and thus constitutionally ineligible, many other “perfect” choices will always be just out of reach.
A Trump/Carson ticket, however, comes as close to perfect as you can get.