Poll: Gingrich, Carson Are Early GOP Vice President Favorites

Republican voters would prefer Newt Gingrich or Ben Carson as the GOP's vice-presidential candidate, according to a Rasmussen poll.

In the poll of 1,000 likely voters conducted May 11 and 12, Rasmussen Reports provided a list of five vice-president options that were "more prominent names in circulation:"

• 20 percent of Republicans want former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for vice president.
• 19 percent of Republicans want retired physician Ben Carson.
• 12 percent want Wisconsin's Gov. Scott Walker for vice president.
• 9 percent want South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
• 7 percent would prefer New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez for vice president.
• 25 percent of the Republican voters want some other vice president besides those five.
• 8 percent in the poll had not decided.

Among all voters, 32 percent of those polled would not prefer any of the five poll options and 15 percent have not decided. Out of all surveyed voters who did prefer one of the five options:

• 16 percent want Gingrich as vice president.
• 14 percent want Carson as vice president.
• 8 percent want Walker as vice president.
• 8 percent want Haley as vice president.
• 6 percent want Martinez as vice president.

In other results of the poll, 78 percent of all voters said the vice presidential nominee is important to whom they choose to vote for, but only 33 percent of that number said it's "very important."

Twenty-three percent of all voters in the poll consider a candidate's running mate unimportant, and 5 percent don't think it's important at all.

Down party lines, 85 percent of Republicans in the poll said that the vice presidential nominee is important to their vote, while that belief is shared by 77 percent of Democrats and 70 percent of voters with no party affiliation.

Wyoming Republican Rep. Cynthia Lummis suggested that GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump should choose a woman for the job, according to The Hill. 

While some voters in the poll favor Ben Carson, the retired surgeon said he would find that job "extremely undesireable," during an interview on CNN’s "New Day."

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