Electoral security

Why Candidates Need the CIA, NSA and Their Mother to Vet Their Veep

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Cruz and Kasich are pulling together lists of potential running mates and researching their backgrounds. With both desperately looking for any kind of leverage to slow Trump’s march to the GOP nomination, Cruz and Kasich are considering the possibility of announcing their running mates as early as June, at the end of the primary season, or waiting to the start of the national convention in July to capture attention.

The choice of a running mate has historically turned on calculations of how best to strengthen the ticket in the general election campaign, whether it’s finding a way to achieve better regional balance, adding heft or political experience or simply exciting the party’s base. But with a contested GOP convention in the offing this summer, Cruz and Kasich are more concerned at this point about swaying wavering Trump delegates to side with them on a second or third ballot or generating excitement as the convention gets underway.