At CPAC, Trump’s potential running mates compete to prove their loyalty

After taking the Conservative Political Action Conference stage Friday to a crisply edited hype video, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik invoked Donald Trump about two dozen times as she heaped praise on the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

The day before, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds had mentioned the former president by name just twice when opening the annual GOP confab, but he sounded an awful lot like Trump when laying out his foreign policy vision. Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii claimed not to know that attendees could choose her in a poll to pick Trump’s potential running mate, while South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem took several shots at some of the other Republicans in the mix to join the GOP presidential ticket during her turn at the mic.

The jockeying to become Trump’s vice presidential pick, playing out behind the scenes for weeks if not longer, spilled into the open at this week’s CPAC, the country’s annual gathering of conservatives. In what amounted to an audition to be Trump’s No. 2, the program inside the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at times appeared more like a casting call for some of the most talked-about contenders for the job.

In addition to Stefanik, Donalds, Gabbard and Noem, entrepreneur and recent presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake all addressed the Trump-adoring crowd as well.

While each went about the task of appealing to Trump and his supporters in their own way, it was clear proving they’re up for the job meant two things: demonstrating unwavering loyalty to the former president, including the most conspiratorial elements of his movement, and showcasing how they would defend Trump and attack his political opponents.
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