Harris’ vice-presidential candidate will be presented next week

Harris has until August 7 to choose who she wants as her partner, but is expected to announce her decision earlier.

The caucus in Philadelphia begins a four-day campaign round for seven of the most important swing states, including Michigan and Arizona.

The fact that Philadelphia has been chosen as the first stop is perceived as a signal that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro is at the top of her list of candidates, and that Pennsylvania is a state Harris must win to become president.

After Philadelphia, Harris and her partner go to western Wisconsin, the big city of Detroit in Michigan, Savannah in Georgia, Phoenix in Arizona and Las Vegas in the swing state of Nevada, among other places.

From the seesaw states

Several of the candidates come from these states, including Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. But Harris’ staff stress that they have not yet made a decision.

The question of who Harris chooses has come to the fore after President Joe Biden withdrew as a candidate and pointed to Harris as his successor.

In addition to Shapiro, Kelly and Whitmer, Harris’ list also includes Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg of Indiana.

Whitmer is probably ruled out because it would still be difficult to have two women at the top of the ballot.

White man

It is therefore likely that Harris chooses a white man as a partner who can contribute to a small dent among white men who are Donald Trump’s most important voter group, especially in the rust belt where many good industrial jobs have disappeared.

If she chooses Shapiro, it is likely that she expects the 51-year-old governor to help her win Pennsylvania in November.

Shapiro gained a high star among the Democrats when in 2022 he beat his Republican opponent Doug Mastriano with more than 56 percent of the vote in a state where it is common for elections to be decided by a narrow majority.

In that case, Shapiro will also become only the second Jewish vice-presidential candidate in a major party in the history of the United States. The first was Joe Lieberman, Al Gore’s running mate in 2000.

Pro-Israeli

Many young people are annoyed with Shapiro because he is pro-Israel and strongly criticized the protest camps at universities in support of Gaza.

It could become a problem for Harris when she appeals to young people who lost faith in Biden, not least because of the Gaza war. But with Shapiro as a counterbalance, Harris can also probably be sharper in his criticism of Israel.

But former astronaut Kelly from the important swing state of Arizona is also relevant. The 60-year-old senator is married to former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was badly injured in an assassination attempt.

Better control over arms sales is therefore an important issue for him. It is also important for Harris that he is well acquainted with the problems along the border with Mexico and is popular among Latinos, an important voter group for the Democrats.

Andy Beshear has achieved the feat of being elected and re-elected in one of America’s most Republican states, even though he is both a Democrat, a supporter of the right to abortion and of the trade union movement.

Decided in the swing states

Elections in the United States are decided in a handful of states known as swing states. In the majority of states, there is a clear majority for one party or the other, such as California and New York, which have been Democratic for many years, and Texas, which is equally Republican. But in the swing states it can go either way.

Therefore, large parts of the election campaign are conducted in the swing states, and in the election of the vice-presidential candidate, emphasis is placed on which state the vice-presidential candidate can help to capture.

This year, as always, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in the rust belt are considered tipping states, as well as Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada in the south and southwest. Republicans are hoping to take Minnesota, which has been solidly Democratic until now, but was on the verge of going Trump’s way in 2016.

Thrown into it

Usually, the presidential candidate begins to consider who will be the vice-presidential candidate after the primaries are over in the spring.

Thus, they have several months to review the candidates’ background and decide who complements the presidential candidate best, both in terms of gender, race, age, geography and political position.

However, Harris was thrown into it and therefore has much less time until the deadline set by the Democratic National Committee, August 7.

Former attorney general in Barack Obama’s administration, Erik Holden, who helped Obama with the review, has been given the same assignment by Harris, in addition to interviewing the candidates herself.

Own promotion

The hopefuls are also running their own more or less discreet election campaign for the position, with commercials on radio and TV and election meetings to show what they can contribute to Harris’ election campaign. .

For example, Shapiro gave an effusive and highly inflammatory speech in support of Harris in Philadelphia on Monday.

– She’s not just ready, she’s bloody ready. And you know who else does? Donald Trump knows she’s ready, Shapiro told cheering supporters.

And Walz, the governor of Minnesota, has been credited with inventing the Democrats’ new key word in their criticism of Trump and co., namely that they are weird.

– The fascists depend on us to step back, but we are not afraid of strange people. They are a little scary, but we are not afraid, he said on Saturday about Trump and his vice presidential candidate JD Vance.