TAMPA, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump is eyeing fellow Floridian Sen. Marco Rubio as a potential running mate, NBC News first reported.
Trump clinched the Republican presidential nomination earlier this month, notching easy wins in the Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio primaries. However, sources told the news outlet he's far from making a pick from his long list of potential vice presidential candidates.
"The list is long, and it's extremely early in any kind of process," a Trump adviser told NBC. "No one has been directly reached out to yet, and I do not expect that for some time."
In addition to Rubio, Trump is reportedly considering about 14 candidates, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
Rubio, who ran against Trump for president in 2016, told Fox News in January that joining Trump's ticket "probably" wouldn't work.
"We’re both from the same state, so that’s probably not going to work that way,” he said.
The senator did, however, officially endorse Trump back in January.
In a Jan. 14 post on social media, Rubio explained his decision to endorse Trump, crediting his leadership with policy victories like expanding the Child Tax Credit and putting sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela.
"We had a President who didn’t cave to special interests or let bureaucrats block us,” Rubio said in the post. “I support Trump because that kind of leadership is the ONLY way we will get the extraordinary actions needed to fix the disaster Biden has created."
Rubio is currently serving his third term in the U.S. Senate. The son of two Cuban immigrants, a Rubio VP pick would mark the first Latino person on a major-party presidential ticket.
It's not clear exactly when Trump will announce his running mate, but sources told NBC it may be around June.