No matter how much closer the country gets to the 2024 election, Donald Trump can’t stop looking back to the one four years ago.
On the campaign trail, the former president consistently brings up his unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him by Democrats. He has even said he doesn’t really want to hire anyone on his campaign who accepts that Joe Biden won in 2020.
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Yet a number of politicians considered top contenders for becoming Trump’s running mate did just that and now have to show their loyalty to the former president in other ways. Others, however, have long been vocal about their false claims of a rigged election.
Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, a fervent Trump supporter on Capitol Hill, notably voted against certifying Pennsylvania’s election results even after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio has been a megaphone for Trump’s stolen election claims and has signaled that he would have declined to certify the election had he been in then-Vice President Mike Pence’s position.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has acknowledged that Trump ultimately lost the 2020 election and said during the first GOP primary debate last year that “Mike Pence did the right thing on Jan. 6.” But lately, he’s pinned Biden’s win on irregularities in the voting process.
Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina both voted to certify Biden’s 2020 election victory. Rubio has agreed with the former vice president that he did not have the constitutional authority to overturn the election results, while Scott has said Pence “absolutely” did the right thing.
And now, duking it out to show Trump that they stand by him, none of these potential vice presidential picks has committed unequivocally to accepting the 2024 election results.
Read more about what these and other VP contenders have said about the 2020 and 2024 election results →