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Kellyanne Conway, a contributor to Fox News, predicted that former President Donald Trump would make “monster gains” in support from Hispanic voters in November and urged him to choose a person of color for his running mate.
During a segment on Fox’s “Outnumbered,” the Fox panel attacked President Joe Biden for his attempts to court Latinos, calling him a panderer. According to a February New York Times-Siena College poll, Trump leads Biden by six points among Latino voters.
In the 2020 election, Biden defeated Trump in the country’s Latino vote, but the Republican candidate was on the verge of securing the majority in several crucial states, including Florida.
Conway asserted that the wave of migrants entering the country from the south and the COVID-19 lockdown will assist in swinging more Hispanic voters to Trump in 2024. Then, the former employee of Trump’s White House encouraged her former employer to select a person of color as his running mate.
“Look, every way you look at it, Hispanics have so many reasons to dump Biden. Harris. The main one is the border. How cynical of an entire Democratic Party to believe that in the nine years since Donald Trump elevated into international consciousness his view on illegal immigration. Build the wall. Be fair to the people here, America first,” Conway said.
“Nine years later, the Democrats still think that attacking Donald Trump on the border is going to get them Hispanic vote. Hispanics are also upset that they are hostile to religion, that they masked up their kids and kept them home for the better part of two school years. The economic upward mobility that is being lost to them. So I think that Donald Trump’s going to have a monster gains among Hispanics, and I think it’s part of why he should pick a person of color as his VP,” she added.
Conway, a Republican pollster who played a key role in helping guide Trump’s 2016 campaign to victory and subsequently held a high-ranking position in his White House, spoke last month about the 2024 Veepstakes.
In a guest post for The New York Times, Conway stated that when determining what should be Trump’s “most important” question regarding a running mate for 2024, the question “Who?” is less significant than “Why?”
“In other words, the individual should complement, not complicate, his America First record and vision and recognize the difference between loyalty-as-tenacity (yes) and loyalty-as-obsequiousness (no),” Conway wrote.
Conway suggested that Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) or Marco Rubio (R-FL), as well as former Secretary of State and Director of the CIA Mike Pompeo, might be good choices to assist Trump in navigating obstacles at home and abroad. Conway also mentioned that she had suggested Mike Pence as his running mate in 2016.
Conway speculated that Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) or Rubio might help Trump skillfully navigate the divisive topic of abortion. She also brought up Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who backed Trump after withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race.
The “most popular suggestion,” according to Conway, was for Trump to “pick a woman” to be his running mate, similar to what former Vice President Joe Biden did with Kamala Harris. Conway stated that Trump could choose “qualified, compelling” women, even though Biden and the nation “suffer daily the consequences of embracing identity politics.”
There were also “experienced female elected officials/grandmothers,” including Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
Conway expressed skepticism about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ ability to draw additional support for a Trump ticket following his Iowa second-place result and Trump’s endorsement at the end of his 2024 presidential campaign.
Although Conway is not associated with Trump’s 2024 campaign, she stated that if she were offering advice to Trump, she would recommend “identity politics a la the Democrats” instead of a “person of color… as an equal helping to lead an America First movement that includes more union workers, independents, first-time voters, veterans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and African Americans.”
Rubio, Scott, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), and “perhaps” Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-TX) would all be on any list, Conway acknowledged, adding that procedural issues like “vetting of all possibilities and satisfaction of procedural issues like dual residency in Florida” would need to be taken into account.
Conway said that Trump “keeps us guessing” and that he doesn’t need to “rush” his decision in the closing remarks of the guest essay.
