Six people who met with Vice President Kamala Harris cahe is looking for his number 2 includes three northern governors, another from a ruby-red conservative state, a border state senator, and a cabinet secretary with communication skills.
Who Harris will pick remains an open question — though we’ll find out when he prepares to make his first public appearance with his running mate on Tuesday’s battleground state tour, which begins in Philadelphia. And each finalist offers a unique way to balance the ticket for the newly minted Democratic Party leader.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walsh are being strongly considered by Harris and his team, NBC News reported. Here’s how each could uniquely help the Democratic ticket — plus the potential pitfalls that have already come to light.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear
Unlike Shapiro and Kelly, Beshar, who represents the red state of Kentucky, would not push in a particular swing situation.
But as a Democrat who was re-elected last year in a state that Trump carried 26 percentage points In 2020, Beshear, 46, has proven an electoral appeal that clearly crosses party lines.
This appeal could help strengthen the Democratic ticket working class, independent and even some Republican voters US battleground states Beshear has already beaten Harris in Georgia, and he could be a boon in another Southern swing state, North Carolina. He is also seen as a potential counterbalance to GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance, the Ohio senator who has made his ties to Appalachia a central part of his political identity.
It became part of the approach during the 2023 re-election campaign based on his support for abortion rights (in a state where the procedure is almost completely prohibited). Harris has made reproductive rights a central part of his messaging. But some reproductive rights advocates We asked if there were any positions will go far enough at the national level and whether he will go far enough in his advocacy at the state level.
On the other hand, Beshear’s political star has risen in part because of his support for teachers’ stipends — as opposed to the occasional sparring between Shapiro and the teachers union. Kentucky educators even took credit for Beshear’s most recent victory.
Meanwhile, Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, said Beshear was the best name for his members. “I’m a huge Andy Beshear fan,” he told CNN this week. “He’s been with us every step of the way.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
At 42, Buttigieg is the youngest of the group. But his skills as a party communicator have been widely praised for years, especially after he emerged as a stronger-than-expected candidate in the 2020 Democratic presidential race.
Buttigieg has served as a convenient emissary and advocate for the Biden administration, including on Fox News and other outlets that some Democrats choose not to attend. He won praise for continuing in that role As a surrogate for the nascent Harris campaign, he talks about his accomplishments and to beat Donald Trump and Vance.
Between the 2020 campaign and the Cabinet endorsement, he has faced more and longer national scrutiny than his competition. But despite his presidential campaign, his experience in electoral politics is somewhat weaker.
Buttigieg has never won statewide office, serving as mayor of South Bend, Indiana, before joining the Biden administration. It also risks becoming the focal point of the nation’s latest wave of transportation crises, including flight delays and a 2023 train derailment in Ohio. And he would tie the Democratic ticket even more firmly to the current administration and President Joe Biden, who has been unpopular for most of his term.
Buttigieg is from a working-class corner of Indiana and recently moved to battleground Michigan, where her husband’s family is. It’s unclear whether he will strengthen a key voting block or geographic area, though he ran well among Democrats in rural Iowa in his 2020 presidential bid.
Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona
Kelly, 60, could help shore up Democratic support in Arizona, another key battleground that Biden won in 2020. is less than 11,000 votes.
He has won races in the state twice in the past four years (a special election in 2020 and a full six-year term in 2022), demonstrating that he offers a unique brand that can help the party attract more independent voters. Arizona.
His position was the basis of this success like a hawk On the US-Mexico border and on immigration – two issues that are key weaknesses for most Democrats, including Biden and Harris. Some think it can be effective Help protect Harris from this liability.
In addition, his biography (former US Navy fighter pilot and ex-NASA astronaut) as well as that of his wife (former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who emerged as a hero to gun safety groups after she was nearly killed in a 2011 mass shooting) can bring star power that other contenders cannot offer.
But some Democrats are worried about his departure The Senate feared a Republican would win a special election in Arizona to finish out his current term, jeopardizing control of the chamber. If Kelly becomes vice president, Arizona’s Democratic governor would appoint a Democratic successor, but a special election would be held in 2026 to finish out the final years of his term.
UAW‘Fain also noted Not a labor favorite, Kelly did not come out early to support a union-favored bill, the PRO Act. Kelly recently said he would support the bill.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker
The appeal involving Pritzker, a 59-year-old two-term governor and former businessman and venture capitalist, is based on a winning combination of business experience and politics.
Top executives in and around Chicago wrote a letter to Harris this week encouraging him to vote. citing his experience of creating jobs and working across party lines. And as a billionaire who has self-funded his campaigns in the past, he’s well-positioned to bring a lot of money to his presidential campaign.
Pritzker—who as governor signed a slew of progressive initiatives, including bans on assault weapons, assault rifles, and spanners, and raising the minimum wage—has also led the way on reproductive freedom: Consider his Great American politics. advocacy group helped increase their efforts to accommodate and pass proposed constitutional amendments establishing abortion rights in various states.
Still, Illinois is a decidedly blue state, and Pritzker’s modest media footprint hasn’t caught fire like some other VP candidates have in recent days. It’s unclear whether his Midwestern roots will help him win key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro
As the popular governor of a critical swing state, Shapiro, his boosters say, presents one of the clearest cases to be selected as Harris’ running mate: He can help deliver an important battleground.
Shapiro, 51, won the 2022 gubernatorial election by a landslide (in a state Biden won just two years ago). 0.2 percentage points)to work The latest poll shows it In Pennsylvania, his approval rating is 57%, including 42% approval among Republicans.
Supporters of the Pennsylvania governor also point to a major donor to the Democratic Party more recently called Shapiro An “Obama-level political talent” with a “Pennsylvania brand worth it,” while others point to his accomplishments as the state’s attorney general. especially accepts Trump.
Even many Republicans consider Shapiro the strongest option to Harrissees him as an effective campaigner and messenger who hasn’t completely alienated Pennsylvania Republicans and can broaden Harris’s appeal with independent voters and traditional Democrats who are drifting away from the party.
But there are risks — especially when it comes to whether some voters on the left will embrace Shapiro, who has broken with Democrats on certain big issues. Shapiro has been the subject of the most organized campaign against a potential VP pick from the left.
He, for example, supported school vouchers (and spoke in support of school choice on Fox News). Others raised serious questions dealing with allegations of sexual harassment legislative assistant in his office.
Most notably, Shapiro, an observant Jew who strongly condemned the rise of anti-Semitism, including in some pro-Palestinian protests, faced an investigation into his record About issues related to Israel.
Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz
Several vice-presidential contenders have raised their national profiles more dramatically in the fast-track process used a media blitz to demonstrate quickly and effectively an outspoken style that helped make him a popular two-term Midwestern governor.
Allies of the 60-year-old Walz have speculated how his background representing rural communities is much needed in the party. At the same time, he set a record progressive policy achievements — the one-two punch they argued would translate into support in the critically nearby “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
He would bring it too the long list of Capitol Hill connections he has made In his 12 years in Congress — the most of any other reported finalist, allies note — that fits Harris’ wish. Find a “managing partner”.
Despite Walz’s headline-grabbing media blitz, it’s unclear how he specifically boosted the ticket in ways other candidates could not.
Democrats don’t need help carrying Minnesota (a state that hasn’t won a presidential race since 1972) — and if they do, they’ll have bigger problems.
Meanwhile, critics have again raised key questions about Walz’s rise and record. Among them are concerns about the delay in calling up the National Guard during the protests that engulfed Minneapolis (and eventually cities across the country) following the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by city police officers. The largest pandemic fraud case has also occurred in the United States Under Waltz’s watch.