Former GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger Predicts Donald Trump Might Replace Vance as Running Mate

Former GOP representative, Adam Kinzinger, threw out an interesting idea— Donald Trump might dump J.D. Vance and pick a new running mate. Kinzinger was in Congress for ages, representing Illinois from 2011 to 2023. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "There is a greater than nothing, but less than likely chance that Donald replaces @JDVance on the ticket. He will say 'The Dems did it so I can.'"

Lately, there have been some rumors that Trump might be regretting his choice of Vance. This chatter got louder after President Joe Biden surprised everyone by dropping out of the race and backing Vice President Kamala Harris for the upcoming election in November. But Trump's team has been quick to shut these claims. Steven Cheung, communications director from Trump's campaign, assured, "President Trump is thrilled with the choice he made with Senator Vance, and they are the perfect team to take back the White House. And any reporting to the contrary is nothing but ridiculous fake news from either nonexistent sources or individuals who have no idea what's going on," as per Newsweek.

He added, "Meanwhile, Democrats are in complete disarray after their coup that forcibly removed Biden from the campaign, proving they are the real threats to democracy." Trump himself has publicly stood by Vance. During a phone interview on Fox & Friends, the former president called the senator 'fantastic,' as per CNN. Senior data reporter, Harry Enten, however, highlighted a troubling statistic for Vance, "I have gone back to 1980. He is the first guy, immediately following a convention— a VP pick— who actually had a net-negative favorable rating...The average since 2000 is +19 points. JD Vance [is] making history in the completely wrong way."

Mitchell Brown, a political science professor at Auburn University, shared, "There's a clear deadline for filing to be on a ballot in each of the states." She explained that as long as a new vice presidential candidate is selected before that deadline, Vance could be replaced. It’s, however, not a simple process. Brown brought up some rules from the Republican National Committee from 2020 that cite that if there's an open spot for the presidential or vice presidential nominee, the committee can fill it or they might call another national convention to decide.

Adding to the speculation, Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as Trump's White House communications director, stated, "He could have appealed to a broader base of people, to women, to more independents. But he didn't. He went hard MAGA, he went with a strange guy that's very dull on stage, and you know, Trump hates that," Scaramucci said. So, he predicted, "I've had that experience with Donald Trump. I do think he could. It's just a question of how many Scaramuccis J.D. is going to last." A 'Scaramucci' refers to 11 days, the length of Scaramucci's tenure in the White House.