I was responding to a post in the other thread before I realized it was locked so I’ll just respond to it here:
He’s not going to say the die hards, of course, but there are probably republicans who are sick of Trump but couldn’t find themselves voting for a brown California woman and are trying to talk themselves into the ticket. They’ll reach for reasons they can justify the vote they want to make and giving them someone they can solidly like is a good move. They’ll be motivated to ignore the policies and differences and find the similarities. This is why it was such an obvious smart move to take some sort of likeable white guy to your ticket – Biden more or less served the same role for Obama. Especially if he’s got some kinda “like to have a beer with” charm and some manly cred - the hunting photo ops will go over well.