Marco Rubio won’t be Donald Trump’s running mate, as VP nod goes to JD Vance

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio won’t be Donald Trump’s running mate.

The senior Florida senator was informed on Monday that Trump would choose another Republican for the GOP vice presidential nod, according to a person familiar with the matter. Just after 3 p.m., Trump posted on Truth Social that he had selected U.S. Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio.

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Rubio was among three finalists for the job, along with Vance and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Vance, an author and venture capitalist who’s only a year and a half into his first Senate term, now fills out the GOP ticket along with Trump. News footage captured on Monday showed the Ohio senator leaving his home in a motorcade.

Trump is expected to make his formal running mate announcement on Monday afternoon at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. The announcement will come less than 48 hours after a shooter opened fire at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania. Trump was grazed in the right ear by a bullet, while one rally-goer was killed in the gunfire and two others were wounded.

For Rubio, who has more political experience than both Vance and Burgum, the former president’s decision is the latest roadblock in his path to the White House. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, and is still believed to harbor presidential aspirations.

An aide to Rubio said that the conversation over the running mate slot in recent weeks had come down to the fact that both Trump and Rubio reside in Florida. A provision in the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution bars a state’s electors from voting for both a president and vice president from their state.

While Rubio was open to moving to another state, the aide said that both Trump and Rubio wanted to be sure that the residency issue didn’t open the ticket up to potential lawsuits, adding that neither man was interested in a protracted legal battle after the November election.