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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is reportedly slow-walking the process to name a successor to Sen. Marco Rubio — as allies of Donald Trump clamor for him to pick the president-elect’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump to replace the secretary of state designee.
DeSantis, the 46-year-old former and possibly future Republican rising star, challenged Trump, 78, for this year’s Republican presidential nomination before losing in a landslide and ultimately supporting Trump’s comeback bid.
“The governor will be conducting a thorough vetting process and interview process in December that will involve several candidates,” a DeSantis aide told NBC News.
“He’s not in a hurry to make an important decision.”
Rubio, 53, is likely to remain a senator through at least part of January. His nomination is one of the least controversial among his current upper-chamber colleagues, and he’s on track to be confirmed easily.
DeSantis said last week that he’s looking for someone who would “be strong on immigration and border security, take on the entrenched bureaucracy and administrative state, reverse the nation’s fiscal decline, be animated by conservative principles, and [who] has a proven record of results.”
Lara Trump, 42, is a forceful advocate of her father-in-law’s populist agenda and would guarantee him an ardent ally in the Senate, where many Republican members continue to flex their independence from Trump, including by expressing unease about his demand for recess appointments to his Cabinet, which barring legal gymnastics would require them to consent to go into recess.
Republicans will hold a 53-47 seat advantage in the Senate and a handful of members have balked at Trump’s slate of Cabinet nominees and three returning GOP members even voted to convict him in his 2021 impeachment trial.
Lara Trump is married to Trump’s middle son Eric and has been co-chair of the Republican National Committee since March.
She previously was floated as a possible Senate candidate in North Carolina, her home state.
DeSantis technically could pick himself to serve as senator or choose a seat-warmer who would allow him to vie for the role down the road, though he’s said to be leaning against it.
Other fervent pro-Trump allies have been discussed, including former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who this month received and then relinquished Trump’s nomination to serve as attorney general amid unease among Senate Republicans about a House Ethics Committee probe of him for alleged sexual misconduct.
Gaetz, however, was a fiery Trump advocate during DeSantis’ failed presidential bid.
NBC reports that DeSantis’ short list of possible Rubio replacements includes Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd, former Florida House Speaker Jose Oliva and the governor’s chief of staff James Uthmeier.
The presidential transition will result in other congressional vacancies — including the Ohio Senate seat held by Vice President-elect JD Vance — as well as the upstate New York House seat held by Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations.