(Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris is set to launch a battleground tour next week with her yet-to-be-named running mate, with stops in seven swing states stretching from Pennsylvania to Nevada, her campaign said Tuesday.
With precious little time to spare, the campaign’s announcement may have given some indication as to whom she is likely to select—and whom she may have ruled out.
With the announcement due to take place in Philadelphia, many speculated that Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro now had the inside track.
I did NOT realize that Shapiro shot up like that in the betting market. Kamala announcing Philadelphia as her first stop after the VP reveal really shook things up. She’s making the right choice tbh. pic.twitter.com/gUdiI4TkU2
— Gretchen’s Arrows 🔥💯 (@KRamelmeier) July 31, 2024
Shapiro’s addition to the ticket would solve at least two problems for Harris: Although a recent poll by Bloomberg (the company bearing the name of one of Democrats’ top donors) showed her overtaking GOP nominee Donald Trump in key battleground states—including Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada—Pennsylvania notably still remained in Trump’s column, albeit with a narrower margin.
🇺🇲 2024 GE: Bloomberg/Morning Consult
MICHIGAN
🟦 Harris: 53% (+11)
🟥 Trump: 42%ARIZONA
🟦 Harris: 49% (+2)
🟥 Trump: 47%WISCONSIN
🟦 Harris: 49% (+2)
🟥 Trump: 47%
—
NEVADA
🟦 Harris: 47% (+2)
🟥 Trump: 45%
—
GEORGIA
🟦 Harris: 47% (=)
🟥 Trump: 47%
—… pic.twitter.com/esZU56lcjC— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) July 30, 2024
Shapiro, who is Jewish, also would help Harris to reclaim the support of those who may have been put off by her apparent support for Hamas in its conflict with Israel.
Religion (Richard Baris, H2H, no leaners)
Protestant: Trump 59.1%, Kamala 35.0%
Catholic: Trump 47.1%, Kamala 45.9%
Mormon: Trump 83.9%, Kamala 12.9%
Jewish: Trump 45.9%, Kamala 52.7%
Muslim: Trump 24.6%, Kamala 66.5%— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) July 31, 2024
While Harris is married to a Jewish man, Doug Emhoff, reports suggest that the couple rarely spends time together, with Emhoff opting to reside mostly in California.
The timing of Harris’s announcement also supported the assumption that she would pick a governor, according to Axios.
“The Harris campaign is pressing Wall Street donors to cut their checks as soon as possible, citing a financial rule that bars contributions to tickets featuring a sitting governor,” it reported.
That essentially rules out Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who was reported to be the favored choice of former President Barack Obama.
In addition to a recent scandal involving a company that manufactures Chinese spy balloons, Kelly’s open seat could potentially create a problem for Democrats in a Senate cycle where they already faced strong odds of losing the majority.
Harris said Tuesday she hadn’t made a decision yet on whom she would select. Her campaign has been vetting about a dozen potential running mates, according to people familiar with the search process.
To that end, Shapiro campaigned on her behalf in suburban Philadelphia this week.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, likewise, told voters in Georgia that Harris has the makings of “a great president”—and then highlighted the elections he’s won as a Democrat in Republican territory.
Beshear’s “centrist” reputation might help assuage voters put off by Harris’s track record as having been one of the most radical leftists in the U.S. Senate, even before joining the Biden administration, where the few contributions she has made have been fiascos.
Nonetheless, having a centrist vice president with a Republican congress could pose a distinct risk for Harris if she were to be elected, making the possibility of impeachment more enticing.
He sought to reassure rallygoers that he could be just as radical in the policies he supported.
“I am a proud pro-union governor. I am a proud pro-choice governor. I am a proud public education governor. I am a proud pro-diversity governor,” Beshear said.
The campaign said Harris and her running mate would make stops next week in Philadelphia; western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Phoenix and Las Vegas.
In the meantime, Harris advisers, led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, have been combing through reams of paperwork submitted by potential running mates, while the candidate herself is holding personal conversations with the finalists, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details that haven’t been made public.
Harris, according to another person familiar with the matter, is seeking someone with executive experience who can also serve as a governing partner.
Notions of a so-called short list have not stopped those on the Democrats’ broader national bench from finding the spotlight.
“I’m not going to talk about the interactions I’ve had with the campaign,” Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker declared recently on MSNBC. He added, though, “Let’s just say I’m aware that the vetting process is quite an in-depth one.”
Then he listed his accomplishments, offering that he was the only Midwestern governor to raise his state minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Pritzker, a wealthy scion of the family that owns the Hyatt hotel chain and several other investments, may have been one of the key factors in helping Obama rise to fame from his start as a little-known state legislator in Illinois.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, 60, is a favorite of some far-left progressives—including unhinged Hollywood actor John Cusack, who warned that anyone more moderate would “kill the youth vote.”
Listen – we have to WIN the election – WHERE ARE THE VOTES you take from Trump to WIN ?
They are with working class white votes – they are with young anti genocide votes. That’s the path .Things that must be said
Shapiro in Pennsylvania or Kelly in Arizona will kill… https://t.co/PQA59kRAEl— John Cusack (@johncusack) July 29, 2024
Walz was one of the last white Democrats in Congress to represent a mostly rural, small-town House district—a notable juxtaposition to Harris, the Bay Area Californian.
“She will make the best choice she’s going to,” Walz said Sunday on CNN, a day after Trump held a mass rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. “One way or another, she is going to win in November, and that’s going to benefit everyone,” Walz said, including “a lot of those folks who were out in St. Cloud…”
While Harris considers her choices, everyone seems to have an opinion.
Steven Benjamin, the White House director of public engagement, laughed as he told reporters on Air Force One on Monday that his office has received thousands of recommendations from around the country.
Donna Brazile, who managed Democrat Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000 and was instrumental in urging Biden to pick Harris in 2020, said the selection process involves “a lot of noise” that underplays the complexity of the decision.
“The most important stage is what the lawyers will do to you,” she said, with a laugh and emphasizing the seriousness.
“It’s worse than a dental hygiene check,” she added. “… Before you get to suitability and other factors, before it gets to political people like me, they’ve done a forensic examination of your life.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
