Good morning! Want to run for office but don’t want to campaign? No problem! You just have to find the right race. Of the 28,000 elections last year nationwide, a whopping 17,000 featured only one single candidate. And 2,500 of them? Literally nobody ran.

2024

🥈 The veepstakes has begun

The first and only rule of picking a vice presidential candidate? Do no harm.

To ensure that’s the case, the Trump campaign began pelting prospective VPs with paperwork this week to ensure there are no, err, problems that might arise during the campaign.

Strategy: Once you know your possible VPs are scandal-free, you’ve got two main strategies:

• You can pick someone you think will help you win a state or type of voter. Trump picked Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in 2016 to help win over skeptical evangelical voters.

• You can pick someone you think you’d enjoy working with for four or eight years. This was Hillary Clinton’s strategy in picking Sen. Tim Kaine in 2016 (perhaps she should’ve gone with route #1).

Process: You hit all ‘em all with intense background checks and interviews. You make them reveal every single minor detail about their personal and public lives. You leave no stone unturned. You pick your VP candidate. Your party (Republican or Democratic) officially nominates your pick at their big convention over the summer.

Here are the eight candidates the Trump campaign is reportedly vetting:

• South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, 58, is a Nice Guy™. He’s also the only Black Republican senator and pledged to run a big outreach campaign for Black voters, a key demographic Trump is trying to win over.

• North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, 67, is absolutely loaded. He started a software company and later sold it to Microsoft for nearly $1 billion. Candidates can give as much cash as they want to their own campaigns so his pile of gold could help him seal the deal.

• Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, 53, was the Republican Golden Boy until his 2016 presidential campaign got steamrolled. Trump might think Rubio can help win the Hispanic votes that could be key to winning back the White House.

• Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, 39, has only been in office since January 2023. That may hurt his chances. He's also a Marine vet who gained fame writing the bestselling book "Hillbilly Elegy."

• (Upstate) New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, 39, was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress when she took office back in 2015. Before that, she worked in the Bush White House and on Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign.

• Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, 45, was first elected in 2020. He's popular with more conservative Republicans and is one of just four Black Republicans serving in the House.

• Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, 47, is a 6'5" retired Army captain and attorney. That height could be an advantage or it could hurt his chances since Trump might not want to be out-heighted by his number two.

• Dr. Ben Carson, 72, served as Trump's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021 and they still have a good relationship. Before politics, he was a world-famous pediatric neurosurgeon.

He could also surprise us and pick someone nobody expects (like the lady who thought admitting to shooting her puppy was a good idea).

Taking into account Trump’s age and the fact that he’s already served half of his two-term limit, this is an extra valuable VP slot. Win or lose this year, whoever he picks will have an inside track at the 2028 presidential nomination.

BUSINESS

🤠 Welcome to Y’all Street

Watch out, New York. A well-financed group of entrepreneurial Texans just announced the coming launch of the Texas Stock Exchange. To get things rolling, the group has raised $120 million from dozens of investors (including huge financial firms like BlackRock and Citadel).

• They blame "rising compliance costs” at the other exchanges, namely the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, for creating this need.

• They want the new exchange to be "more CEO-friendly" and plan to axe "onerous regulations" like the Nasdaq's board diversity requirements.

Wait, you can just start a new stock exchange? Yep. Pretty much. Fill out some paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and you’re off to the races (it’s a wee bit more complex than that in reality).

• The New York Stock Exchange is a private company whose stock is actually listed on itself.

• The Nasdaq, the other big exchange, was founded in 1971.

• A few other, smaller exchanges also exist. There used to be more, but most have been folded into the big boys.

A stock exchange is basically just a farmers market. Only instead of overpriced jams and jellies, you’re buying tiny slices of companies. And one company sometimes sells on multiple exchanges.

Future: The Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) will be HQed in Dallas and will be digital-only — so no live shots of frantic traders screaming on CNBC. It plans to begin trading in 2025 and start listing new stocks in 2026.

POLITICS

⚪ A new national poll shows Donald Trump leading Joe Biden by the skin of his teeth, 46% to 45%. Adding three minor candidates to the mix boosts Trump's margin a bit. He leads Biden 44% to 38% when independents Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Cornel West, Libertarian Chase Oliver, and Green nominee Jill Stein are included.

🔴 Silicon Valley billionaire David Sacks, an early PayPal exec, will co-host a fundraiser for Donald Trump. The event is expected to raise a cool $12 million.

🔵 Should Hunter Biden be convicted in his federal gun crime trial, Joe Biden has promised he won’t intervene and issue a pardon for his son.

⚪ Indie candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has seen his favorability ratings slowly tank recently, right along with his poll numbers. But rumors in D.C. are swirling that his buddy, Republican Sen. Rand Paul, miiight give RFK a shot in the arm by becoming the first high-profile politician to endorse the campaign.

🔴 A federal judge ordered former Trump aide Steve Bannon to report to prison by July 1. Bannon's out of legal runway after being sentenced in 2022 to four months in adult timeout for defying a congressional subpoena related to Jan. 6.

TRIVIA

Allied forces landed at Normandy, France, and began the liberation of Europe 80 years ago yesterday. One of the commanders that day was the son of a former president of the United States. Which president’s son, under heavy enemy fire, helped lead U.S. troops in the D-Day invasion?

Hint: He was 56 years old at the time (June 6, 1944).

WORLD

🇫🇮 Finland: The European Union's first batch of bird flu vaccines is headed to Finland. Workers at mink farms (yes, like grandma's coat) are at high risk of contracting the virus. Bird flu has also hit cattle herds in 10 U.S. states, though the milk supply is safe due to pasteurization.

🇮🇱 Israel: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) hit the media for buying Hamas’ story on a strike at a school in Gaza. The IDF says it targeted Hamas fighters illegally hiding in the school and that its attack was legal per international law.

🇺🇦 Ukraine: The billions in new American tech it’s receiving are being put to good use. Ukraine is reportedly using its new, longer-range weapons to attack the Crimean Peninsula, which is (was?) home to huge Russian military supply lines for fuel, ammunition, and food.

BRIEFS

• A new STD just dropped — a type of ringworm called TMVII is now present in New York after breaking out in Europe

• Mexico's local, state, and federal elections last week saw 37 candidates assassinated — up from 36 in 2021

• New meteorological data show the core of "tornado alley" has shifted from Oklahoma to Mississippi over the past 40 years

• American Airlines and its flight attendants' labor union can't agree on a pay raise, risking a strike at one of the world's busiest airlines

• The Kansas City Chiefs stopped practice yesterday after a player (who you won’t recognize) went into cardiac arrest

QUOTE

SNACKS

🍿 Movies: “Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” Will Smith’s first fully post-slap movie is in theaters now. If cops cruising Miami in Porches isn’t your thing, the OG “Lion King” returns to theaters next month to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

🖥️ Netflix: Everyone’s third-favorite streaming service is testing a big app refresh. The new design moves information away from that huge box at the top of your screen and right into an expanding selector as you scroll.

🚀 Spaceships: Boeing's Starliner capsule successfully delivered its first gaggle of astronauts to the International Space Station. Elsewhere, competitor SpaceX ran a successful test flight of its 400-foot Starship megarocket.

🤑 Wheel of Fortune: After hosting more than 8,000 episodes since 1981, longtime host “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak is calling it quits after tonight’s season finale. The Ryan Seacrest era begins in September.

ANSWER

Ever his father’s son, Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. requested permission three times to lead the first wave before the Army relented. He passed away from a heart attack in France the following month and is buried nearby (with 9,387 other Americans) at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Gen. George Patton called him "one of the bravest men I ever knew."

Junior previously served (weirdly) as governor of the Philippines and of Puerto Rico. Like his dad and distant cousin, he also previously served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy earlier in his career.

“Le Monde” has some great photos of yesterday’s memorial service in France.