New Mexico journalists shouldn’t feel too upset that Gov. Susana Martinez’s office doesn’t return phone calls or emails—the governor reportedly did the same to Donald Trump’s campaign manager.
That’s part of a story in The New York Times about how Trump came to choose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate.
A list of 16 names, put together by then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and campaign chairman Paul Manafort, did not include Martinez. It did include five women.
Update: Martinez’s camp said they never were called by Lewandowski.
From the Times story:
Before the list was drawn up, Trump also expressed interest in Gov. Susana Martinez of New Mexico, but after Martinez did not return repeated phone calls from Lewandowski, Trump said that he was done with her — and then bashed the governor on a campaign stop in Albuquerque in late May.
Martinez did not attend Trump’s Albuquerque rally, days ahead of the Republican primary in New Mexico. Martinez has also repeatedly declined to endorse Trump, though she took part in formally casting New Mexico’s Republican delegate votes for Trump at the Republican National Convention Tuesday.
Spokesmen for Martinez did not respond to a request for comment from NM Political Report Tuesday about if she endorsed Trump. She said in the past she would need to hear from Trump on how his policies would help New Mexicans before she endorsed Trump.
NM Political Report also reached out to the spokesmen on Wednesday about the Times report.
Trump said in early June, ahead of the primary, that he wanted Martinez’s support.
Shortly after that, media reported Martinez and Trump would meet. It’s unclear if such a meeting happened.
Most of the attention on the story came from an explosive claim; that Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., offered Ohio Gov. John Kasich the vice president slot and said he would give Kasich control of domestic and foreign policy. Trump Jr., according to the story, told Kasich that as president, his father would be in charge of “Making America great again.”
Trump, for his part, denied that the offer to Kasich took place.
John Kasich was never asked by me to be V.P. Just arrived in Cleveland – will be a great two days!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2016
Pence is scheduled to speak tonight at the RNC. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is scheduled to introduce Pence.
