How Trump’s Florida residency complicates Rubio’s path to VP

[mystery-ak]

 How Trump’s Florida residency complicates Rubio’s path to VP
by Julia Manchester - 06/16/24 6:00 AM ET

Former President Trump’s relatively new status as a Florida resident is complicating the potential of him choosing the state’s senior Sen. Marco Rubio (R) to run on the same ticket as him in November.

The 12th Amendment maintains that presidential and vice presidential candidates running on the same ticket “shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.” And theoretically, Florida electors would be blocked from voting for a Trump-Rubio ticket.

“Florida is a large state and a state that you hope to carry,” said Derek Muller, a professor at the Law School at the University of Notre Dame.

The amendment could prove to be a headache for the two candidates if Trump taps Rubio as his running mate. But legal experts say there are loopholes to get around the rule, which many Republican strategists argue could be worth it given the background and experience the senator could bring to a potential ticket. 

“It wasn’t too long ago that [Rubio] was somebody in the conversation to be the future of the Republican Party. He adds a lot of pluses to the ticket,” said Ford O’Connell, a Florida based Republican strategist. “The minus here is the 12th Amendment.”

There is precedence for a presidential and vice-presidential candidate working around the amendment. In July of 2000, Dick Cheney changed his residency from Texas to Wyoming so he could run on the same ticket as then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Cheney represented the state in the House of Representatives from 1979 to 1989. Cheney changed his residency to Texas in 1993 when he bought a home in the state and resided in Dallas while he was chairman of Halliburton.

“The Constitution says the senators just have to be an inhabitant of the state when elected,” Muller said. “So you can move out of the state if you wanted to, it just created a different kind of political cost and calculus if you do it that early,” he added, using July as a hypothetical date.

“And if you wait until November when you win, you have a lot of steps to try to take in a very short period of time to try to establish residency, which can create separate problems if Congress wants to challenge your qualifications can try to challenge,” Muller said.

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https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4722230-how-trumps-florida-residency-complicates-rubios-path-to-vp/

[mystery-ak]

June 16, 2024
Trump’s VP and the Twelfth Amendment
By Mark C. Ross

There’s a fair amount of speculation these days about whom Trump will choose as a running mate.  Guessing games can often attract a crowd.  The names of Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio, along with even Donald Trump, Jr., are being bandied about.

There is a catch.  It’s called the Twelfth Amendment: “The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves.”

This particular clause did not change the Constitution.  It was carried forward from Article II, Section 1 so as to maintain the same rule, in spite of the amendment, which changed the way in which the vice president was chosen.  Originally, the veep was the second-place finisher in the Electoral College.  In the election of 1800, there was an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, so the House of Representatives chose Jefferson to be president and Burr to be vice president.  Needless to say, they didn’t get along very well, so the Twelfth Amendment was ratified and took effect for the next election in 1804.  On July 11 of that same year, Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel.

Just to be clear, it is still possible for both the president and vice president to live in the same state, but the electors of that state cannot vote for both of them.  For states such as Wyoming and Alaska, this doesn’t matter all that much.  Florida, however, has thirty electoral votes, and that ain’t chopped liver.  Texas has thirty-eight electoral votes.  When Texas governor George W. Bush chose him to be his running-mate, Dick Cheney promptly quit his job at Haliburton in Houston and scooted back up to Wyoming to register to vote.

more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/06/trump_s_vp_and_the_twelfth_amendment.html