6 Leading Contenders for VP Kamala Harris Running Mate
What in the world just happened?
Within the past 24 hours, Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee and hordes of top Democrats publicly endorsed her. We are finding out that lots of people apparently knew in advance that this was going to happen on Sunday. To call all of this “orchestrated” would be a tremendous understatement. It appears that the Democratic party machine was absolutely determined to slam the door shut on anyone that would even think of challenging Harris. And this is the party that was attempting to claim that it would “save democracy”?
What a joke.
On Sunday evening, it was being reported that all 50 Democratic party state chairs had officially endorsed Harris.
The chairs held a conference call on Sunday after President Joe Biden announced he was stepping aside as the party’s candidate.
California Governor Gavin Newsom could have been a formidable challenger for the nomination, but he has decided to endorse Harris, too.
I think that Newsom definitely wants to run for president, but there are a couple of things holding him back at this time:
#1. I think that Newsom considers this election to already be lost.
#2. I think that Newsom has always been targeting 2028 and he doesn’t want to do anything to mess that up.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is probably the only big name left that has a prayer of challenging Harris, but she probably realizes that she has already been outflanked, and so I don’t think that it is likely that she will pull the trigger.
Unless a miracle happens, Harris will be the nominee. So who will she pick as her running mate?
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The following are six of the leading contenders:
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro
He is leading in the betting markets because he is the most obvious choice. In this election, the swing states will determine the outcome, and Pennsylvania is the most important swing state. So it would make sense to select a man that is “wildly popular” in that state
Shapiro, who comfortably beat Trump-backed Doug Mastriano in 2022, is popular in his home state and enjoys support from both Democrats and Republicans. The only governor with a divided Legislature, Shapiro was able to reach a bipartisan agreement just last week. He’s also been applauded for his handling of major infrastructure crises, including the collapse of the I-95 bridge last year and the train derailment in Ohio, which borders Pennsylvania.
Of all the potential VP contenders, Shapiro might be among the sharpest of the group because his presence could help Democrats secure Pennsylvania, Jeffrey Kraus, a politics professor at Wagner College, told Newsweek.
Interestingly, Shapiro wasted no time in publicly endorsing Harris.
“The best path forward for the Democratic Party is to quickly unite behind Vice President Harris and refocus on winning the presidency,” said Shapiro, who won his competitive state in a blowout against a strongly pro-Trump Republican in 2022. “The contrast in this race could not be clearer and the road to victory in November runs right through Pennsylvania—where this collective work began. I will do everything I can to help elect Kamala Harris as the 47th President of the United States.”
To me, this seems like a slam dunk, but just like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris has a tendency to really mess things up.
U.S. Senator Mark Kelly
Harris and Kelly have known each other for a very long time, and their teams regularly interact with one another. So there is an existing relationship there, and that should not be underestimated.
Also, Kelly is from the swing state of Arizona, and so that would be a plus. Unsurprisingly, Kelly has also publicly endorsed Harris.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper
There has been a lot of chatter about Cooper, but there are a lot of people in his own state that do not like him. He does come from a swing state, and he certainly looks the part.
Like the first two names on the list, he also rushed out an endorsement of Harris.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear
What Beshear has going for him is that he is a proven winner in a red state, but everyone knows that Kentucky is going to be in Trump’s column in 2024, and picking Beshear would not change that.
So, I don’t think that he is likely to be the choice.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer
Whitmer is a big national name, and everyone knows that she wants to run for president at some point, but she has one big thing going against her.
Harris wants a man to balance out the ticket.
The fact that Whitmer is a woman is probably going to eliminate her from contention. However, the Michigan governor said in a social media post, that her “job in this election will remain the same: doing everything I can to elect Democrats and stop Donald Trump, a convicted felon whose agenda of raising families’ costs, banning abortion nationwide, and abusing the power of the White House to settle his own scores is completely wrong for Michigan.”
Pete Buttigieg
Buttigieg came out of nowhere and got a lot of support during the early portions of the race for the Democratic nomination in 2020, but since that time, his star has kind of faded.
In addition, Harris and her team would probably regard him as a high risk addition to the ticket. His presence on the ticket would probably cost them votes, and that is something that they do not want.
Of course, Buttigieg would eagerly accept the job if it was offered to him, and he has already publicly endorsed Harris.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a Biden rival in 2020-turned-Cabinet secretary, said: “Joe Biden has earned his place among the best and most consequential presidents in American history. I am so proud to serve under his leadership, and thankful for his unwavering focus on what is best for our country.”
He later endorsed Harris, saying he’d “seen her extraordinary leadership firsthand” as a 2020 candidate and in the White House, adding: “I will do all that I can to help her win this election to lead America forward as our next President.”
It will probably be a while before Harris picks her running mate, because Harris has to be officially selected first.
Originally, Joe Biden was supposed to be nominated by “a virtual roll call vote in the first week of August.”
At the moment, it’s even unclear exactly when Democrats will meet to select their nominee.
They had been planning to formally nominate Biden during a virtual roll call vote in the first week of August in order to avoid a potential legal issue around a ballot access deadline in Ohio. But the party may now have to change course if Democratic delegates are not prepared to ratify her nomination so quickly.
That process will be governed by the Democratic National Convention rules committee, which has almost 200 members and is chaired by Leah Daughty, a longtime DNC insider and rules expert, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
If no major contenders come forward to challenge Harris, perhaps the timeline will not change much.
During the first round of voting, more than 3,900 pledged delegates will cast their ballots. If nobody has enough votes after the first round of voting, there will be a second round during which more than 700 superdelegates will be allowed to vote.
If nobody has enough votes after the second round of voting, there will be subsequent rounds until someone has enough delegates to secure the nomination.
I have been stressing the importance of 2024 for a long time, and things are certainly starting to get really crazy out there. Personally, I think that the Democrats are making a dramatic mistake by hitching their cart to Harris.
She is a terrible, terrible candidate. But if by some miracle she actually ends up winning, she will be an even worse president.
Michael Snyder’s new book entitled “Chaos” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.
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