President Joe Biden and Donald Trump remain the frontrunners in the 2024 presidential election.
While the rematch between Biden and Trump looks more and more certain, questions continue to emerge on who the vice-presidential nominees could be.
What Happened: Biden formally declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race and is committed to having current Vice President Kamala Harris serve as his running mate.
But as Benzinga recently shared, Biden doesn't have to select Harris as his running mate and could even select someone from the opposing party
While it's unprecedented and sounds farfetched, a presidential candidate can select a running mate from an opposing party. Candidates sometimes choose running mates who lean more to one side of the political spectrum, appeal to different demographics or come from states with a large amount of electoral votes in moves to help drum up additional support.
In the early days of the U.S., the vice president was determined based on the presidential candidate who received the second most votes. This means political candidates from opposite parties were typically president and vice president at the same time
Biden is unlikely to move on from Harris, but some see a potential change needed to help boost his odds of re-election
While some political experts have pointed to Biden selecting a different vice presidential candidate from his Democratic political party, a new possibility has emerged
Biden could select Nikki Haley, who is a Republican presidential candidate, as his vice presidential candidate.
On the Republican side, Trump has not announced who his running mate will be yet, with names like Tim Scott, Kristi Noem, Elise Stefanik, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and Haley often discussed.
Benzinga recently polled its users on social media to ask, which president/vice president ticket they would vote for. The results were as follows on Twitter:
Joe Biden/Nikki Haley: 23.9% Joe Biden/Kamala Harris: 8.9% Donald Trump/Nikki Haley: 11.1% Donald Trump/Ron DeSantis: 56.1%
The results on LinkedIn were:
Joe Biden/Nikki Haley: 34% Joe Biden/Kamala Harris: 21% Donald Trump/Nikki Haley: 10% Donald Trump/Ron DeSantis: 34%
Without knowing the political voting party of the respondents in the poll, some observations can still be made.
Both polls showed a preference to Biden running with Haley over running with Harris, suggesting he could have a better chance of winning the 2024 presidential election if he makes the switch to the Republican candidate.
The polls also show a preference to Trump selecting DeSantis as his running mate over Haley. The ticket of Trump and DeSantis won or tied for the victory in both polls, with a strong 56.1% majority among voters on Twitter.
Related Link: Joe Biden’s Strategy For Swing States – Support Unions & Striking Workers
Why It's Important: Harris has expressed dissatisfaction with the responsibilities allocated to her throughout her tenure as vice president and has been conspicuously absent on several occasions during Biden's presidency, according to CNN.
While Biden and Harris both appeal to Democratic voters, introducing a running mate who is Republican or more centrist could potentially broaden Biden's appeal across a wider spectrum of the electorate.
Both Biden and Haley have fallen behind in polls, which could suggest trouble in their respective runs for president in the 2024 election. In the latest Morning Consult poll of Republican voters, Trump has a 63-point lead with 81% of support, compared to 18% for Haley.
A Morning Consult poll shows Trump with a 44% to 42% lead over Biden for the 2024 election and a lead over the current president in all seven swing states. Trump has ranked ahead of Biden in the national Morning Consult poll in eight of the last 10 weeks.
Prediction market Polymarket offers betting on political events with users depositing to Polygon (CRYPTO: MATIC) using USDC (CRYPTO: USDC). Polymarket users can also deposit with Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH).
The current odds for Trump's vice president pick on Polymarket show Stefanik, Noem, Ramaswamy and Haley as the favorites with 17%, 13%, 12% and 12% chances respectively based on wagers made.
Another betting option is that Harris is the Democratic VP nominee, with an 83% chance implied based on the wagers.
Image: Shutterstock/Edited with Canva
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