Trump urged to scoop up 'young, winsome' Sarah Huckabee Sanders as his running mate

With Donald Trump all but certain to be the Republican Party's 2024 presidential candidate despite his myriad legal problems, eyes are now turning to who will be his running mate.

In a column for Politico, National Review Editor-in-Chief Rich Lowry warned the former president away from some possibilities that the conservative said would be detrimental to his re-election bid — while suggesting one candidate who had a close working relationship with Trump before he lost the 2020 election.

For Lowry, at the top of the shortlist for running mates should be Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, ex-Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) and darkhorse Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as backups.

At the very bottom of the Lowry list is former TV personality Kari Lake, who the journalist described as "not remotely plausible as a potential president given that her last job was as a local TV anchor. On top of this, she has a high opinion of herself and is difficult to deal with. She’s a master at media, but could be unpredictable under the national klieg lights. In short, this would be a remarkably poor pick."

As Lowry sees it, Huckabee Sanders should be a lock, stating that Trump "has great promise. Trump could easily do worse, and might have trouble doing much better."

Describing the former White House press secretary's appeal to voters, he wrote, "The Arkansas governor served Trump ably as White House press secretary and is a MAGA figure in good standing. She is young, winsome and a talented communicator. As a mother of three who beat cancer, she has plenty of charming, moving personal stories and she’s good at telling them. She might indeed help soften the Trump ticket for suburban women.".

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As for her downside, he added, "The question is, as the 41-year-old governor of a small state who has been in office only two years, how she’d handle the pressure of the national stage and whether people would see her as ready to be president."

Lowry has similar feelings about Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) who is generally believed to be openly auditioning for the veep spot, with Trump praising her as "a killer."

"She’s understandably basking in the glow of her star turn in the antisemitism controversy with the Ivy League presidents. She’s smart and completely open about wanting to be picked. In her audition on 'Meet the Press' a couple of weeks ago, she ably returned every serve and showed that she knows what it takes to earn Trump’s admiration on TV by demonstrating 110 percent commitment to him, instantly adopting his term of 'hostages' for those convicted of Jan. 6 crimes," he wrote.

However, he cautioned, "The downside is that she’s untested and hasn’t held executive office. Obviously, House members have been picked before — most recently, Paul Ryan and Geraldine Ferraro — but in the modern context, it always feels like a stretch. It would here, as well."

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