As Donald Trump narrows down his running mate pool, some of the front-runners have ties to the business world, helping them rise to the top of the list.
It also helps that they are helping Trump find new, deep-pocketed donors for himself.
Two prime examples of this dynamic are Ohio Senator J.D. Vance and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
Both men (like Trump) have made careers in the private sector rather than politics, and both have seen their opportunities enhanced by serving as liaisons between the Trump administration and Silicon Valley and the energy industry.
For Trump, who has long been attracted to CEOs, private sector experience appears to be an advantage in itself.
“He probably knows more about energy than anybody I know,” Trump said of Burgum at a recent rally in New Jersey, adding cryptically, “So be prepared for something to happen.”
What’s even more remarkable is that both Vance and Burgum have been critical of Trump in the past, yet both have managed to gain traction with his base this year.
The two have consistently ranked highly in recent vice presidential polls. Other names often mentioned include Sens. Marco Rubio and Tim Scott, who both have short business backgrounds and entered politics early in their careers.
Of course, Trump being Trump, the list of candidates could change quickly, and the former president has a full month to choose a nominee after saying he wanted to wait to make an announcement until the Republican National Convention, which begins in Milwaukee on July 15.
In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Trump continued to hint at the process, reiterating that he would probably make an announcement during the convention and saying he had a “pretty good idea” about who would be selected, though he didn’t say for sure.
In February, President Trump said about his choice of running mate, “There’s so much going on in this country that doesn’t make sense, so I want someone with common sense.” Reps. Vance and Burgum did not respond to requests for comment.
How Vance and Burgum leveraged their business connections
Vance currently serves as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives and is best known for writing a memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” before being elected to the Senate in 2022.
What he talks less about is his time living in San Francisco and working as a venture capitalist for Peter Thiel at Mithril Capital, which was omitted entirely from his official Senate biography.
But that experience was a crucial advantage in the vice presidential election.
Vance recently used his connections, particularly to billionaire investor David O. Sachs, to organize fundraisers for Trump in Silicon Valley, infiltrating the Democratic base and reportedly raising $12 million for the Trump campaign.
“We have in this room some of the leading innovators in the field of AI,” Vance said during an appearance on Fox News after the fundraiser.
Vance also acknowledged that he was being vetted by the Trump campaign during the conversation and said, “I’m very interested in supporting the Trump campaign.” [Trump] Whatever that may be.”
Such is the case with Burgum, who is a relatively unknown governor of the nation’s 47th-most populous state but has emerged as a leading candidate.
Burgum became close with Trump after his short-lived presidential campaign ended and quickly endorsed him and gave him his full support.
But the business connections he brings seem just as important.
According to Forbes, Burgum is worth more than $100 million after leading a North Dakota software company through an IPO in the 1980s and 1990s and then being acquired by Microsoft (MSFT) in 2001.
He served as a senior vice president at Microsoft until 2007, after which he worked as a venture capitalist, before moving into politics and being first elected governor of North Dakota in 2016.
During his time as North Dakota’s top state official, Mr. Burgum developed close ties to the energy industry and helped cultivate ties between the Trump campaign and figures like Continental Resources founder Harold Hamm, who led a string of oil officials in donating money to Mr. Trump.
Hamm himself has donated heavily to groups aligned with Trump, including giving a $614,000 check to the former president’s “Trump 47” joint fundraising committee in March, according to federal election records.
Burgum also orchestrated a recent controversial fundraiser in which Trump told oil company executives that he wanted to overturn dozens of Biden’s environmental policies and that they should raise $1 billion for his campaign, according to The Washington Post.
Burgum appeared on Fox News recently and answered a question about being a possible vice presidential candidate, offering some flattery, saying Trump works harder than some former tech CEOs he once hung out with.
Other candidates
Besides Vance and Burgum, another business-aligned candidate has recently emerged as a somewhat surprising contender: Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty.
He had a long career in private equity before becoming President Trump’s ambassador to Japan and winning the Senate election in 2020.
Hagerty has been posting about his campaign on his social media feeds, and a recent New York Times article about the vice presidential race listed him as a second-tier candidate (Burgum and Vance were in the first tier).
The Trump campaign has long downplayed the veracity of the various lists of vice presidential candidates that have been made public. In response to a question about the matter, senior Trump campaign adviser Brian Hughes said, as he has said many times throughout the campaign, “Anyone who claims to know who President Trump will pick as his vice president and when is lying, unless they are Donald J. Trump.”
Other names often mentioned as potential vice presidential candidates include Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, Rep. Byron Donald and Rep. Elise Stefanik.
One business candidate, Vivek Ramaswami, was removed from the list in recent weeks as Trump considers potentially tapping the Roivant Sciences founder and former 2024 presidential rival for other office if he is elected.
Ben Warschle is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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