Last Thursday, Holder and Remus compiled their findings for Friday’s meeting with the group of trusted confidantes who conducted the first interviews. Among them were Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, a top Biden adviser who remained with the Harris campaign.
By Saturday, the team had whittled down the roster to three names — Walz, Shapiro and Kelly — that would command a head-to-head meeting with Harris.
On Sunday, black SUVs with out-of-state license plates slid through the gates of the Washington Naval Observatory, home to the vice president’s residence, on their way to the most important meeting of their residents’ lives.
Walz left the meeting feeling reassured. Shapiro did not.
“He wrestled with it on Sunday,” said a person close to Shapiro, because he “loves his job” and has more he wants to do in just two years. “[He’s] No matter where he sits, he has everything going for him,” the source added.
By the end of the weekend, Harris was talking to candidates and consultants so much that his voice was hoarse, and he began carrying throat lozenges to nonstop meetings.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the black iron fence of the observatory, the apparatus started to come to life to support the last running mate.
Liz Allen, a former Biden State Department official, was named the final candidate’s chief of staff, with “jump teams” sent to finalists if selected. Staff at the campaign’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware began developing graphics, videos, talking points and even stump speeches for each of the finalists.
Aides tried to buy Harris as much time as possible, printing signs with various potential candidates and even changing party rules—ironically through a party committee chaired by Walz—so that the party could make its choice after formally nominating him.
“People were like ‘The Bachelor’ playing in real time,” Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., joked outside a polling station Tuesday.
Candidates who have gone through the screening process in previous years describe it as a tedious and uncomfortable process, comparing it to multiple proctology exams.
Comprehensive questionnaires about the candidates’ legal, financial, political, personal, family and work backgrounds are followed by hours of interviews known as “kill boards” where dirty laundry is aired and hypothetical scenarios to see how the candidates react. And then, perhaps, they can meet with the candidate for an actual job interview.
“It’s a challenge of a process,” said former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, who vetted Hillary Clinton’s 2016 running mate.
Loyalty to Biden
If Walz had lost, Shapiro seemed to be the front-runner from the start, followed by Kelly — and all three were finalists.
In the small world of Democratic politics, the two governors are friends, and they attended a Bruce Springsteen concert in New Jersey last year, while former Texas state Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who served in the House with Walz, grew in power. him behind the scenes.
“Lori and I consider Tim and Gwen to be good friends of ours, and we’re excited for them and for the country to recognize the great people we know them to be,” Shapiro said in a statement Tuesday.
Kelly had the most impressive résumé of any candidate, but many Democrats see him as an unusual speaker and uncool in person.
Some Harris allies also felt insufficiently loyal to Biden in the testing weeks after his poor debate performance and believed the administration did not do enough to defend border policy, according to a person familiar with the process.
Kelly praised Walz in a statement, noting that his wife, Gabby Giffords, served alongside Walz in the House.
“Gabby and I will do everything we can to make Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the next president and vice president,” he said.
Kelly’s team did not respond to a request for further comment.