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The current U.S President has heaped a great amount of praise on his daughter Ivanka Trump, calling her one of his best and closest advisers. To shake things up in 2020, is it possible Trump could nominate her for VP?

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There's nothing stopping him from making such a suggestion, but there's also nothing that says anyone has to go along with it, and it may not be a smart idea.

First of all, the Constitution does not prohibit a President and Vice President from being from the same family, or even from the same state. It only says that the electors from a state cannot vote for both a President and Vice President from their own state. In this case, that's surprisingly unimportant - Trump would be unlikely to win his home state of New York in an election where those electoral votes matter. The last time New York went Republican in an election that wasn't a Republican landslide was when they went for Dewey over Truman in 1948, and in 2016 Trump lost New York by over 20 points despite winning the electoral college. Also, as mentioned in a comment, Ivanka could change her residency before the election, to avoid the possibility.

However, even though it is legal to make such a nomination, the Republican party is not required to nominate a vice presidential candidate just because the presidential candidate wants that person. They do not ordinarily refuse - but this is not an ordinary case. Many delegates are bound to vote for a particular presidential nominee, at least on the first ballot - but this does not apply to voting for the vice presidential nominee.

I'm not sure a Trump/Trump ticket would do much to reach out to voters that may have held their noses while casting a vote they viewed as against Clinton rather than for Trump. Perhaps more importantly, the delegates might perceive this to be the case, whether or not it's true, and might, on that basis, refuse to nominate her.

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  • So in 2024, one party has candidates A and B from the same state as candidates for president and vice president, while the other party has candidates X and Y. X has the majority in the 49 other states, but A becomes president fair and square because he wins his home state. In that situation, would Y become vice president (unless the first party replaced B with C from another state)?
    – gnasher729
    Oct 12, 2021 at 10:47
  • Or in other words, Republicans would be unwise to pick both president and vice president candidate both from Texas, and Democrats would be unwise to pick theire two candidates both from California?
    – gnasher729
    Oct 12, 2021 at 10:50
  • @gnasher729 Yes, that's why Cheney "moved" to Wyoming
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Oct 12, 2021 at 13:47
  • @gnasher729 In your case, assuming the electors don't actually vote for the main opposing candidate, nobody would have a majority and the Senate would choose between B and Y.
    – D M
    Oct 13, 2021 at 9:46
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This could be done in one of two ways

  1. Have that relative become their running mate in the next cycle. They would run on the ticket and be elected as normal. This isn't normally done for political reasons (it would create a LOT of chatter as to why the previous VP did not run again)
  2. The current VP dies or resigns. In that case, the President would nominate a new Vice President per the 25th Amendment. That nominee must be confirmed by both chambers of Congress. That could prove to be a sticking point (the opposition party would undoubtedly cast the appointment of the relative as nepotism)

As long as the nominee meets the eligibility requirements, I know of no other restrictions

  • Be a natural-born U.S. citizen;
  • Be at least 35 years old
  • Have resided in the U.S. at least 14 years.
  • Not excluded for other reasons:
    • Previously president for at least 6 years
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