The most interesting name on Byron Donalds’ latest press release is the one that isn’t on it.
Eight days out from the Primary, the Donalds campaign on Monday rolled out county chairs from the Panhandle to South Florida, a roster of Sheriffs, legislators and local heavyweights built for a front-runner already thinking about November.
Hold that roster up against the running-mate shortlist POLITICO’s Kimberly Leonard assembled last month from a dozen GOP operatives: U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack, Sens. Ana Maria Rodriguez and Bryan Ávila, and Reps. Fiona McFarland and Meg Weinberger.
Rodriguez is now Donalds’ Monroe County chair. McFarland got Sarasota. A county chairmanship is a fine title, but it’s the kind you give someone who isn’t getting the other one.
Weinberger is nowhere on the list. Palm Beach, her home county, went to Larry Snowden and Linda Stoch.
The blank space tracks with what Florida Politics is hearing: sources in Weinberger’s orbit and in the White House political operation both say President Donald Trump has urged Donalds to give her a serious look for the No. 2 slot. The Palm Beach Republican, “MAGA Meg” to her followers, stood beside Trump in January as he unveiled the President Donald Trump Boulevard signage at Mar-a-Lago, a renaming she carried through the Legislature. The Floridian’s Javier Manjarres reported in June that she sits atop Donalds’ list.
Cammack and Ávila were left off Monday’s roster too, and FP is hearing that Cammack is interested in the job, so Meg-for-LG is far from a done deal.
Under state law, Donalds has until nine days after the Aug. 18 Primary to name a running mate, and until then he’ll keep saying no decision has been made. Maybe so. But nearly everyone on the shortlist just picked up a title, and the one who didn’t has Trump in her corner. Some hands tip themselves.