Vice President Kamala Harris is beginning to vet about a dozen possible candidates to be her running mate, according to two people familiar with the matter, as she approaches one of the most consequential decisions of her new presidential candidacy.

Harris' goal, according to people with knowledge of the matter, is to keep the process drama-free, as she and Democrats try to project confidence after an extraordinarily tumultuous few weeks for the party. And her choice could come sooner rather than later: After President Joe Biden's exit from the race on Sunday, Harris' party could move to make her its official nominee as soon as Aug. 1 in a virtual roll call vote. She has already secured enough delegates to become the party's nominee.

The Democratic National Convention is set to begin Aug. 19 in Chicago. For reference, Donald Trump named JD Vance to be his running mate on July 15, the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

While much of the political conversation has centered on four names — Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper — Harris' team has requested information from about a dozen officials, according to the people.

The broader list includes Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. At least one of those being vetted is not currently in government.

Initial requests for information went out Tuesday, one of the people said.

Shapiro, who on Tuesday said he had not received any requests for vetting material, was less categorical Wednesday. He referred questions about the process to Harris' campaign team.

Eric Holder, the former U.S. attorney general, and a team of lawyers at his firm Covington & Burling are taking the lead on vetting potential choices. Typically, those under consideration are asked to turn over financial records and records of past political stances and speeches, and they are asked to submit to interviews with lawyers to identify potential red flags.

Each of the major candidates comes with their own potential advantages and drawbacks to balance the Democratic ticket.

Democrats have zeroed in on North Carolina as a key state to compete for in their pursuit of 270 Electoral College votes — Biden lost the state to Trump by around one percentage point in 2020 — Harris has found herself frequently campaigning in the state and often doing so alongside the Tar Heel state’s term-limited governor, Roy Cooper.

Campaigning in the state for the seventh time this year last week, Harris called Cooper a “dear friend” and an “extraordinary leader,” noting they both served as their respective states’ attorneys general at the same time.

Cooper, 67, served 16 years as the state attorney general, overlapping with Harris as she served as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017. He took office as governor in 2017 after beating incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory in 2016 by just over 10,000 votes in a year Trump beat Hillary Clinton in the state by nearly 200,000 votes. Four years later, he won reelection, beating his Republican opponent by nearly five percentage points and outpacing Biden in the state by 150,000 votes. 

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, another swing state Democrat, successfully won two Senate races in the last four years, succeeding his state’s longtime Republican Sen. John McCain. An astronaut and Navy veteran, Kelly got involved in politics through the fight for gun control after his wife, then-Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, was shot and gravely wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt. He was among the first Democratic senators to endorse Harris after Biden dropped out.

“I couldn’t be more confident that Vice President @KamalaHarris is the right person to defeat Donald Trump and lead our country into the future,” Kelly wrote on social media. “She has my support for the nomination, and Gabby and I will do everything we can to elect her President of the United States.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is a Democratic darling, pushing for some of the party’s more progressive policies in deep-red Kentucky and winning elections anyway. At just 46, Beshear has won gubernatorial elections in his state twice already and his name was frequently discussed by party members as a possible candidate to replace Biden himself. But while he’s clearly a rising star, Kentucky is far from a swing state and is almost certainly not in play for Democrats in the fall. And Beshear’s second term would end in December 2027, meaning he would be wrapping up his time in office amid the next Democratic presidential primary, setting him up to run for president then if seeking the top job were his priority. 

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who beat a Trump-backed, far-right Republican in the governor’s race in 2022, has emerged as a remarkably popular figure in a purple state amid a highly partisan era. 

An April poll of his state by Franklin & Marshall College found he had a 54% approval rating, including 57% of independents. Biden’s approval rating in that same poll among all registered voters was 35% and 27% of independents. Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat up for reelection this year, had just a 39% approval rating. According to the Franklin & Marshall pollsters, Shapiro’s approval rating was the highest at that point in a Pennsylvania governor’s first term since Gov. Tom Ridge in early 1996. 

The 51-year-old Shapiro is just 18 months into his first term and is eligible to run for reelection in 2026, setting him up for a potential 2028 presidential run. But Pennsylvania is key to Democrats' hopes of winning back the White House and preserving their Senate majority in 2024 and Shapiro could provide a boost to those efforts if he were on the ticket.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeig, a 42-year-old former naval officer and first openly gay Cabinet secretary in U.S. history, has made clear his aspirations for higher office and laid bare his ambition to get there. After a meteoric rise in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary — outlasting Harris and outpacing Biden in the first two contests — the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., has found himself in Biden’s Cabinet and as one of the president’s most called upon surrogates.

The young father of two has made more of being a small city mayor from the Midwest than most in record time and is more well-known to the public than some of the other governors and senators on this list due to his presidential campaign. As a gay man, Buttigeig would be the first openly LGBTQ member of a major U.S. party’s presidential ticket and is often praised in his party for his ability to handle the media, including right-wing outlets like Fox News.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, two-term Midwest governor and a billionaire to boot, comes from one of the richest families in America and could would help woo the business community, while also being able to point towards his more progressive policy achievements and positions as governor — including on abortion and gun control.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung was asked by reporters during a rally on Wednesday whether the former president has said anything about Harris' possible running mate.

"There is a short list of governors and senators. They are all interchangeable," Cheung said. "It doesn't matter."

Spectrum News' Ryan Chatelain contributed to this report.