KEOKUK, Iowa — Former President Donald Trump dispatched a team of high-profile surrogates to secure votes for him in Iowa while also testing out their prospects as a 2024 running mate.

Trump’s vice presidential hopefuls are not only contending with likely caucusgoers, they are also contending with blizzard conditions before the primary’s opening contest on Monday.

Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) hosted Trump events last week on opposite sides of Iowa, the pair stoking speculation they are on his vice presidential short list should he become the Republican nominee. But similar stops for Gov. Sarah Sanders (R-AR) and Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake were scrapped this week as the state prepares for negative 15-degree temperatures on caucus night amid a once-in-a-decade snowstorm.

Those four women are not the only high-profile Trump supporters who have traveled to Iowa to campaign for the former president during the last two weeks before the caucuses while he was in two different courts, one for his New York state civil fraud trial and another for special counsel Jack Smith’s federal election inference case. Others included former Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and onetime Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the 2008 Iowa Republican caucuses and was scheduled to accompany his daughter, Sanders, in the state. But although they mostly play coy, Lake, Noem, and Greene, at least, have been amplifying their national profiles in case Trump taps them to replace former Vice President Mike Pence.

When asked whether she or Lake should be Trump’s No. 2 after her event in Keokuk, Greene demurred to the former president.

“President Trump is going to choose his vice president, and I completely trust him to do that,” she told the Washington Examiner.

Greene confirmed last year that Trump is considering her to be his vice president, but she responded last November to a social media post by conservative organization Turning Point founder and CEO Charlie Kirk promoting former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson for the position.

“I agree with you Charlie,” Greene wrote. “There’s no one better than Tucker Carlson!!”

During a phone interview, Lake, who is a candidate for an Arizona U.S. Senate seat, chastised reporters for focusing on Trump’s vice presidential prospects rather than the border or President Joe Biden‘s wars.

“I’m not really wasting my time and energy thinking about it,” she said. “But I do know this: Whoever he picks will be a strong person to stand beside him, work with him, implement his America First policies, and whomever he picks, I will be first in line voting for. … I know he’ll pick someone great because our movement has a lot of great fighters in it.”

Meanwhile, Noem, who paid for a pro-South Dakota TV advertisement during the first 2024 primary debate last summer, reminded reporters last week she was open to becoming vice president, criticizing anyone who advocated former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley to be his deputy instead.

“Gov. Noem was honored to help President Trump as he builds towards a historic win in Iowa,” Noem communications director Ian Fury said. “Her rally in his support was the largest surrogate event of the cycle with 900 attendees because people love President Trump — and they love Gov. Noem, too.”

Trump himself told Fox News during a televised town hall this week that he had already made a decision regarding his understudy, joking that it will not be former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a critic of the former vice president who ended his own campaign hours before.

“I know who it’s going to be,” Trump said.

After a stop with Donald Trump Jr. in Urbandale, Dallas County Republican Party Chairwoman Kelley Koch, who has had discussions with Lake and praised her for understanding “how to fix problems,” similarly commended Noem as a “freedom state” governor.

“But know your geography,” she said. “She comes from a small state, and, I love South Dakota, but it’s a very small population, very easy to manage, agri-farming, cattle, Mount Rushmore. And for the vice president, you need to have something to come to the table with — a swing state, a mixed racial population.”

Koch was additionally fond of Sanders, describing her as “tough,” but believed she would remain in Arkansas with her young family.

After Trump’s rally in Mason City last weekend, Mike Liddell, CEO of My Pillow and the face of his company’s TV ads, disagreed with Koch.

“I don’t think he’s going to have to pick one, just to be, you know, to pull people from over here to balance wherever,” he said. “He [should use] common sense. He should pick the best one that’s going to help this country. It doesn’t have to be a woman. It doesn’t have to have a different race. It needs to be someone that will be the right person to help this country, all people, not just the party, so to speak.” 

After conversations with Trump supporters in Keokuk, Mason City, Newton, and Urbandale, Sanders appears to be an early vice presidential favorite, compared to Greene and Noem, whose names not every voter was familiar with (other suggestions ranged from Carson and former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to 2024 Republican presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).

“With everybody I mentioned, they already have curb appeal,” said Bob Sherman, a 68-year-old Clear Lake semi-retiree, of Sanders and Noem. “There’s enough time to build a name, but put that energy into something else if you get a person who already has a recognizable name.”

Along the press area rope line, Zach Byrnes, 34, called Lake “a hometown favorite” because she “graduated from high school in Iowa.”

“First of all, she’s a good speaker,” the Riceville farmer said. “She’s got a good message and she resonates with a lot of the moms in the suburbs that they say Trump didn’t do so well with last time. You know, protecting your children, protecting your border.”

The next day in Newton, Mary Doyle, a Trump precinct caucus captain from Des Moines, underscored Sanders’s political pedigree and executive experience.

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“I remember when she was press secretary and I thought, ‘Man, she was just so business and just stays on task and presented herself very well,’” the data analyst, 69, said. “Even though she was just the press secretary, she sounded more like somebody who should be running part of the country.” 

“I’m most familiar probably with Sarah Sanders, but that’s just because I think I’ve seen her more in the public eye,” added Mandy Bower, a 45-year-old Newton phlebotomist. “Wasn’t [Noem] the one in South Dakota that kept her state open when a lot of them closed during COVID and all that, and her state prospered? Her state did really good. So I mean, she would be a smart one for VP.”