Kamala Harris faces one of the biggest decisions of her political life over the weekend, as she enters the crucial last stages of picking a running mate who can help her win the White House and defeat the looming authoritarian threat of Donald Trump.
Just two weeks after being suddenly thrust into the political spotlight and on to the top of the Democratic ticket after Joe Biden decided to step aside amid concerns over his age, Harris’s campaign has triggered a burst of enthusiasm among Democrats. Polls show her recovering much of the ground on Trump that Biden had lost.
But her choice of a vice-presidential candidate presents a thorny problem she must solve to keep her momentum and satisfy as much of the often fractious Democratic base as possible.
Harris’s choice will come down to “who can have the hard conversations”, a former Harris aide turned US senator said as the “veepstakes” neared their conclusion.
“At the end of the day, it’s going to come down to who can she have a relationship with, who can have the hard conversations with her,” Laphonza Butler, like Harris from California, told the New York Times.
“This is somebody she’s going to have to see on a fairly regular basis for the next four years [if elected]. And you got to do more than just tolerate them. There has to be some genuine like and care and a good vibe.”
Butler advised Harris in 2020, when she ran for the Democratic presidential nomination. That campaign ended swiftly but Harris, then a senator, was picked for vice-president by Joe Biden.
It is a notoriously thankless job, memorably deemed by John Nance Garner, who served under Franklin D Roosevelt, “not worth a bucket of warm piss”.
Harris’s time in the role has not been smooth but Biden’s historic July decision to step aside for a younger candidate transformed her fortunes in an instant. Heralding huge fundraising and surging voter enthusiasm, Harris is closing the gap on Trump in polling, nationally and in battleground states. In some recent national polls she has even opened up a narrow lead.
In ordinary campaign years, vice-presidential vetting and selection takes months, from the end of the competitive primary process in spring to the late-summer turn towards election day. It is a notoriously intense process, aides combing through the personal, public and financial lives of possible candidates, hunting for any whiff of scandal.
Now, in a campaign operating at political warp speed and with fewer than 100 days to go till polls open, Harris is set to complete her search in two weeks or less.
Her campaign has refused comment but interviews and records requests supervised by the former US attorney general Eric Holder were reportedly complete by Thursday.
The contenders to be named before a joint rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday were widely reported to include four governors – Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Tim Walz of Minnesota and JB Pritzker of Illinois – one senator, Mark Kelly of Arizona; and one member of Biden’s cabinet, Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary.
All are white men, reflecting the belief that though Americans may be ready to vote for a first woman (and second non-white) president, many would be less keen to back a ticket featuring two women or two people of colour.
Those on Harris’s shortlist have said little. Some cleared their schedules for the weekend. Citing anonymous sources familiar with Harris’s schedule, the Times said she had “blocked off several hours … to meet with the men being considered”.
Brian Brokaw, who managed Harris’s campaigns for California attorney general, told the paper she would consider “the best traits and life experiences and job experiences to fill that position”.
Three possible picks were widely agreed to have moved to the fore.
Kelly is a former navy combat pilot and astronaut who was elected to the Senate in 2020 in Arizona, a battleground state, and is married to Gabrielle Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived a shooting and now campaigns for gun control.
Walz, a former teacher and national guard sergeant, is a popular progressive governor who has led the charge in calling Trump and his own running mate, the Ohio senator JD Vance, too “weird” and extreme to rule.
Shapiro governs a battleground state and enjoys high approval ratings from Republicans as well as Democrats. Like Harris, he is a former state attorney general. Unlike Harris, he is the subject of attacks from some progressives over his positions on Israel, Gaza and pro-Palestinian college protests.
On Friday afternoon, speculation ran rampant on social media that Harris had selected Shapiro after Philadelphia’s mayor, Cherelle Parker, appeared to share a video that seemed to suggest just that. Local reporters disproved the speculation shortly after.
Age continues to play a central election role. Biden withdrew because at 81 many deemed him too old. At 78, Trump is vulnerable to the same charge.
Harris is 59. Kelly and Walz are 60. Shapiro is 51, 27 years younger than Trump and 12 years older than Vance.
Trump’s running mate has been targeted for his extreme views on women and families but also for his inexperience, as a senator since just last year.
Taking his own shot at Shapiro, Vance recently said: “He talks … like if I tried to do a really bad impression of Barack Obama.”
Among Democrats – and satirists – that might be seen as no bad thing.
“It’s not just me, right?” Ronny Chieng, a Daily Show host, said over footage of Shapiro stumping for Harris, in cadences not dissimilar to those of the 44th president. “We all hear that? I was almost expecting him to be like, ‘And that’s why you should vote for me, Josh Hussein Shapiro.”
Whoever Harris chooses, he will be expected to return fire against Vance, potentially on the debate stage, though no contest has been set.
According to Brokaw, Harris “wants to be briefed on every possible scenario around every issue that she’s confronted with” but “moves fast once a decision is made”.
