The main contenders to become Kamala Harris’s running mate have gotten to this point in part by battling Donald Trump.
Of the six vice presidential prospects who met with Harris’ team in recent days, five have developed state and national profiles by becoming prominent figures in the MAGA “resistance” — either as governor or state attorney general, clashing with Trump, defeating his supporters in key races, or launching a new one in response to his rise. implement policy.
Presidents typically do not end up in direct conflict with politicians who rise as their counterweights during their first term. But Trump has been on the scene long enough now that those who protested his first term are rising further into national politics.
Now one of them is likely to run for vice president on the Democratic ticket in an effort to block a comeback bid.
Some Democrats say familiarity with Trump will be beneficial for Harris.
“Trumpism has lost every election for almost a decade. Having to run against people who repeatedly beat his crew should make him melt even more,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, which narrowly defeated Trump. “These people know how to balance their common sense with MAGA and the extreme weirdness of Trump. They proved it.”
The Trump campaign said it wasn’t concerned.
“Our hearts go out to whoever Kamala Harris chose as her running mate, because for the next 95 days they will be asked how they can stand up to the weakest, most failed and most dangerously liberal candidate in history,” a Trump campaign spokeswoman said. Carolina Leavitt said in an email. “And we will be prepared to hold them accountable for their record.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro then began building a national profile as the state’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against On issues including the Trump administration’s attempt to repeal the contraceptive coverage requirement for health insurance and the travel ban on people from majority-Muslim countries. He also fought Trump’s bid to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
In 2022, Shapiro ran for governor against Trump-endorsed MAGA stalwart state Sen. Doug Mastriano and defeated him by nearly 15 points, boosting his stock in the political arena by an eye-popping margin in a closely divided state. Mastriano, who was called by the January 6 committee and organized buses to Washington on January 6, 2021 present that day in the restricted areas of the U.S. Capitol, other Trump supporters entered an area on the east side of the Capitol after breaking through barricades, although Mastriano said he followed the police line “as it was” and left when it was clear. t is peaceful.
Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former astronaut and Navy pilot, was elected for the first time in a 2020 special election that was largely an anti-Trump referendum. For the first time since 1996, Kelly and President Joe Biden have painted Arizona blue in a presidential election.
Two years later, Kelly ran again for a full six-year term, defeating Trump-backed Republican Blake Masters, denouncing Masters as a “dangerous” election denier and highlighting Trump’s other unpopular positions.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walsh began elected office in 2006 by winning a seat in Congress in a backlash against a different Republican president. He held the red-trending House seat by less than 1 point in 2016, when Trump dominated the district. double digits. Two years later, he rode the blue wave of anti-Trump sentiment to become the state’s governor.
He recently went viral by disparaging Trump and his MAGA movement as “weird.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg experienced in some ways the sharpest rise of the Trump era in 2019, when he attempted to make the unexpected leap from small-town mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to the White House. He ran at a time when Democratic anxiety about Trump reached a fever pitch, running for president on a generational shift and a new kind of politics.
It caught on to some extent: Buttigieg stormed from obscurity to win the 2020 Iowa caucuses and finished second in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary. He fared poorly in the primaries that followed, leaving him and endorsing Biden before becoming transportation secretary.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker may be Trump’s most outspoken critic, often calling the former president a “racist,” a “homophobe,” a “misogynist” and a criminal. He is there too humiliated Trump as “a sleazy old man in orange who fell asleep in his own court.” He won office in 2018, when the combination of backlash against Trump and Illinois blue was too much for then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, Republican incumbent.
Then there’s Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who also happens to be an aide to Harris. His rise in deep red Kentucky has less to do with Trump, and a large part of his appeal as a potential vice president is his ability to win over Trump voters.
But Beshear defeated a Trump-like GOP challenger in 2019 and used Roe v. He used the reaction to Wade’s end.
In one way or another, Trump played a big role in creating the characters that could complement the Democratic ticket he faced this year.