Donald Trump, the current GOP front-runner in election 2016, will select Susana Martinez, the governor of New Mexico, as his vice presidential running mate, assuming Trump wins the Republican nomination.
Given that Hillary Clinton is his likely (but not 100 percent certain) opponent, and that The Donald has been accused of misogyny, it seems essential to put a woman on the Trump ticket.
Susana Martinez is the first woman ever to be elected governor of her state and the first Hispanic female governor in the U.S. She is the 2016 chair of the Republican Governors Association.
A former long-time prosecutor with a tough law-and-order philosophy and like Trump a former Democrat, Gov. Martinez – who was reelected for a second term in 2014 — checks all the boxes, to use an annoying cliché, and also puts a swing/blue state into play for the Republicans in the Electoral College for the general election.
That being said, an elected official of Martinez’s stature would understandably only accept the VP slot if it came with substantive responsibilities rather than just traditional place-holding ceremonial duties, however.
Martinez served as District Attorney for Dona Ana County in New Mexico for 14 years prior to successfully running for governor against then-Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, the Democrat candidate, in 2010.
Susana Martinez cut perhaps the best political ad in the 2010 election cycle.