This weekend, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is meeting with six possible running mates. Next week, she will make an official announcement and go on a fighting tour with her new running mate.
Two people who know how Harris chose her candidates say that she plans to meet Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Tim Walz of Minnesota, as well as Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. The people were given anonymity so they could talk about secret campaign discussions.
Even though her selection process was cut short, Shapiro and Kelly were seen as two of the top candidates after about a dozen names were screened.
Some have officially dropped out of the running, like North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper. He is friendly with Harris from their time as state attorneys general together, but Cooper is worried about how often he would have to travel outside of North Carolina if Harris were on the national Democratic ticket.
Harris will start a tour of seven key swing states on Tuesday, which means she doesn’t have much time left to choose a running mate.
President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that he had talked to Harris about her search for a running mate. But when asked if he had any suggestions for what Harris should look for in a running mate, the president declined to say.
Before leaving for the weekend to Wilmington, Delaware, Biden said on the South Lawn of the White House, “I’ll let her work that out.”
It looked like there might be something going on with the vice-presidential choosing process because some of the people on Harris’ short list suddenly changed their plans for this weekend. For instance, Shapiro canceled three events planned for the weekend in New York beach towns on Long Island, and his press secretary, Manuel Bonder, didn’t say much about why.
“The governor’s trip was planned weeks in advance and included a number of events to raise money for his own campaign,” Bonder said in a statement. His plans have changed, so he won’t be going to the Hamptons this weekend.
Some money for Shapiro was going to be raised by Michael Kempner, who is on President Joe Biden’s national finance committee. The meeting had been pushed back, and Kempner told those invited that “many are speculating that this is a sign he will be the vice president.” He also made it clear that he wanted Shapiro to be Harris’s running mate.
Another thing that made a fuss Friday was a video that Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker posted on social media. Parker is officially supporting Shapiro for vice president. It showed that some Democrats and officials in the Philadelphia area were supporting Harris for president while also supporting Shapiro for vice president. This made some people think that Parker might know about Harris’ choice before it was made public.
But someone who knows what the mayor is thinking said that the video was just the mayor showing support for Harris and the idea that Parker’s friend Shapiro could be her running mate for vice president. The individual spoke without giving their name because they were not allowed to talk about the matter in public.
