Marjorie Taylor Greene's Hopes of Being Trump's VP Suffer Killer Blow
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's potential as a vice presidential candidate appears to have been dealt a blow in a new Rasmussen poll.
A survey of likely voters from Rasmussen Reports and Political Media, Inc. has found that a hypothetical presidential ticket featuring former President Donald Trump and Greene would lose to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Republican Party has only begun the process of selecting its presidential candidate—the first official primary votes won't take place until early next year—but Trump is the clear frontrunner in most recent polling.
Speculation about who might be Trump's running mate—the so-called "veepstakes"—is likely to be rife as the GOP primaries begin in earnest, while Greene is a major Trump ally who enjoys a significant national profile.
The Rasmussen poll asked 1,050 U.S. likely voters who they would vote for when presented with a hypothetical presidential ticket. The survey was conducted from April 27 to May 2 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
The survey found a Biden/Harris ticket would defeat a Trump/Greene ticket with 44 percent support to the Republicans' 40 percent.
Two other potential presidential and vice presidential pairings fared notably better against the Biden/Harris ticket.
Fifty-one percent of likely voters would back a Trump ticket with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as his running mate, the poll found, while just 43 percent of respondents said they would support Biden/Harris.
"Trump/DeSantis also wins the national popular vote, which would be a first for Republicans in 20 years. Trump does well head-to-head against Biden, but adding DeSantis to the ticket is powerful," Larry Ward, president of Political Media Inc., said in a statement on Wednesday.
DeSantis is widely expected to announce his own bid for the Republican presidential nomination, though he has not yet formally entered the race, and Trump has publicly criticized DeSantis, accusing him of being "disloyal."
The Rasmussen poll also found that Trump would defeat a Biden/Harris ticket if he were to choose former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake as his 2024 running mate.
A Trump/Lake ticket won 47 percent support among the poll's respondents, compared to 42 percent for Biden and Harris.
Lake is continuing to challenge her defeat in Arizona's 2022 race for governor, where she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs by more than 17,000 votes.
Another strong ally of former President Trump, Lake has announced that she's publishing a book, titled Unafraid: Just Getting Started, which details her "journey and vision for the future of our movement."
While it's still very early in the Republican primary contest, Trump is facing several challengers already, with other prominent figures expected to jump into race. Iowa will hold its first-in-the-nation Republican caucus on February 5, 2024 as part of the primaries.
Newsweek has reached out to Marjorie Taylor Greene's office via email for comment.
