Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he will not consider being former President Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 election. This came one day after Trump revealed that DeSantis was on his “short list” of contenders for the spot.
According to the New York Post, DeSantis said on a call with delegates that he will not serve as vice president.
“People were mentioning me [as a potential vice president]. I am not doing that,” DeSantis reportedly said on the call.
“I know some people are really actively seeking it. It seems to me, just from watching kind of the body language and stuff, that you have a handful of folks who seem to be auditioning for it,” he explained.
“I think my criteria [for running mate] was different than what probably Donald Trump’s criteria will be,” the governor added. “My criteria was, basically, I need someone who can do the job if it came to that, and I would have been the third-youngest president elected so chances are, actuarily I would probably be in pretty good shape, but you never know what else can happen, it’s happened before.”
“I’m not sure that those are necessarily going to be the criteria that Donald Trump uses. I think he’s going to probably use different criteria. I’ve heard that they are looking more at identity politics. I think that’s a mistake. I think you should just focus on who you think the best person for the job would be,” DeSantis concluded.
Earlier this week, Trump revealed his options for vice president, including DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump describes what he'd look for in a possible VP pick:
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) February 21, 2024
"Honestly, all of those people are good. They're all good, they're all solid. And I always say, I want people with common sense because there's so many things happening in this country that don't make sense." pic.twitter.com/BTg2TCxGEL