Vice President Kamala Harris has decided on her running mate and an announcement is expected within hours, sources told The Associated Press on Tuesday morning.
Harris and her soon-to-be-named vice presidential pick are set to formally introduce themselves as a pair at a rally in Philadelphia later Tuesday before setting off on a swing state tour that will take them to seven cities in five days.
After Philadelphia, the vice president and her potential vice president will stop in Eau Claire, Wisconsin -- alongside musician Bon Iver, who is not rumored to be on her running mate shortlist -- Detroit, the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, Phoenix and Las Vegas, holding rallies in venues ranging from big arenas to college campuses, including Historically black colleges and universities, according to her campaign. (Harris was set to hold a rally in Savannah, Ga., on Friday, but that event has been postponed due to Tropical Storm Debby, which made landfall as a hurricane in Florida on Monday.)
Along the way the pair will also meet with voters in what the campaign referred to as smaller and more intimate settings, including family-owned restaurants and union halls.
There are about a half dozen people considered the most likely to join Harris on the ticket and multiple outlets reported that at least three of them – Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shaprio, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – personally met with Harris over the weekend. While the vice presidential vetting process has been shorter than usual due to Harris’ quick ascension as the Democrats’ top candidate after President Joe Biden dropped his bid for a second term just over two weeks ago, there has been no shortage of commentary about the three men.
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Pennsylvania’s Shapiro, who previously served as the state’s attorney general, is in his first term as governor after winning more than 56% of the vote in the major battleground state in 2022. By comparison, Biden won the state with about 50% of the vote in 2020.
Many have pointed to his popularity in the Keystone State, which carries the most votes in the electoral college of the major swing states and, along with its “blue wall” neighbors, is considered key to Democrats’ chances of getting to 270 electoral votes in November.
But Shapiro has also recently faced pushback from some over his previous support for private school vouchers as well as his comments on protests over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Some in the Democratic Party have been highly critical of Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory, which have led to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and a humanitarian crisis and have taken issue with the Pennsylvania governor’s response, including his comments on college protests over the war during a CNN interview in April.
Recently, the resurfacing of a column written by Shapiro, who is Jewish, in college in which he expressed skepticism about a two-state solution, which Biden and Harris both have said they believe is the necessary outcome to the war, added to the controversy.
United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain on Sunday said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Shapiro’s previous backing of school vouchers is an “issue” he sees with the Pennsylvania governor.
Many in the Democratic party have touted Kelly, the junior senator representing battleground Sun Belt state Arizona, for his background as a Navy pilot and astronaut as well as his status as a border state senator as immigration has emerged as a major issue for voters this election.
Kelly is also married to former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords who has been outspoken on the issue of gun violence – a key topic for Democrats – after being shot in the head at a meeting with her constituents more than a decade ago.
Kelly was reelected for his first full term in the battleground state with more than 51% of the vote in 2022.
But the Arizona senator has also faced some resistance from labor groups for only recently saying he would back a bill in the upper chamber backed by unions. Fain cited Kelly’s only recent support of the legislation as a “problem area” for unions.
Minnesota's Walz, who was elected governor of the state in 2018, has been touted by Democrats as an effective communicator for the party. He has been widely credited with starting the messaging strategy that has taken off within the Harris campaign of branding the Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance as “weird.”
Walz, a former public school teacher and veteran, also serves as a co-chair of the DNC Rules Committee and the chair of the Democratic Governors Association. He also previously served in the U.S. House representing a district that had leaned Republican.
But Walz does not hail from what is considered to be a major battleground state and has a record that some consider more progressive and therefore potentially less enticing to swing voters.
The other people considered to be in the mix of possible candidates for vice president include Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.