Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is emerging as a key contender to join former President Donald Trump on the Republican presidential ticket, according to a report from the New York Times.
The report mentions that three individuals “with direct knowledge of Mr. Trump’s thinking” revealed Cotton is among five top candidates for the sought-after vice presidential nomination. Other contenders include Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND), Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Tim Scott (R-SC), and J.D. Vance (R-OH).
This news follows Trump’s Thursday rally in the Bronx, New York, where he told a local television station that Rubio, Vance, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) were among “many people who would do a really fantastic job.”
The report also notes that Trump sees Cotton as “a reliable and effective communicator in cable news interviews.” The former president reportedly also values Cotton’s military service in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as their shared Ivy League education.
During Monday’s Special Report on Fox News, Bret Baier asked Cotton, 47, about his vice presidential ambitions. The anchor mentioned that Hugh Hewitt frequently considers Cotton as a prime candidate for the Republican vice presidential spot. Hewitt wrote a column for Fox News in February, stating, “Cotton is a realist who relentlessly stays on message and avoids mistakes and takes it right at his political opponents—the keys to a successful V.P. candidate.”
However, Cotton downplayed the idea that Trump could select him.
“No, the president and the campaign have not reached out to me,” Cotton said. “I suspect only Donald Trump knows who’s really on his short list. When we do talk, we discuss what it will take to win this election in November, to elect President Trump to another term in the White House, and to elect a Republican Congress so we can begin to repair the damage Joe Biden’s presidency has inflicted on this country.”
While the report sheds some light on Trump’s vice presidential deliberations, it also indicates that “those close to Mr. Trump cautioned that his vice-presidential preferences might change.”
Trump mentioned earlier this month that he would choose a running mate “probably not too much before” the Republican National Convention, scheduled to begin on July 15 in Milwaukee.
Cotton has been representing Arkansas in the Senate since 2015, after defeating two-term Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor. He previously entered Congress as a representative of Arkansas’s 4th Congressional District two years earlier.
