Vice President Kamala Harris has looked at the vetting process from both sides now. But she doesn’t have much time to spare.
It was only on Sunday that President Joe Biden abandoned his campaign and effectively handed it to her, leaving two weeks for Democrats to nominate her and a running mate if they hope to beat an Aug. 7 deadline to ensure their ticket appears on ballots in every state. Modern candidates usually have months to decide, as Biden did when he dragged his feet in picking her in 2020, and as Republican nominee Donald Trump did while holding a virtual public pageant this year before putting Sen. JD Vance of Ohio on his ticket.
Harris doesn’t have that luxury.
She is winnowing her list quickly — in part because of the compressed timeline and in part because several potential candidates, including Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, have taken themselves out of the running. In interviews with more than a half-dozen Democratic insiders, the names of a handful of hopefuls have emerged as leading contenders: Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Roy Cooper of North Carolina. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are also in the mix, these people said.
All of them are white men, though one source said a name that has been floated is Cedric Richmond, a Biden senior advisor and a Black man.
“You need someone who’s moderate, obviously, a white male, and I would say she needs someone from a border state,” said Ashley Etienne, who formerly worked as the vice president’s communications director. “I think her choosing a white male counterbalances her race and her gender in a way that could open her up to peeling off many of those Nikki Haley voters, those disaffected Republicans. Independents. And I think it rounds off the ticket in a way that I think feels fresh, feels also forward, but also feels fully aware of where we are as a nation.”
Etienne added a prediction: “I think it’s Mark Kelly if I had to bet.”
The Arizona senator, a military veteran and onetime astronaut, is married to former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., who survived being shot in the head during a 2011 massacre in Tucson. Advocates for him say that he not only checks important political boxes but has a backstory that will appeal to many voters and gives him credibility on key issues such as gun control, national security and border issues.
A major Democratic Party donor who had pushed to keep Biden in the race but is now “happy as a clam” with Harris about to be atop the ticket, said other big donors are mostly talking about Kelly, Shapiro, Beshear and Cooper.
This person called Shapiro “an Obama-level political talent” who has “a brand in Pennsylvania that’s worth it.”
The campaign is particularly interested in someone who will appeal to demographics and the voters that Biden would have brought to the table, including older white voters and suburban women, according to a source familiar with the campaign’s thinking. That source said Harris’ team also would like the running mate to appeal specifically to white men who don’t like Trump but who may question whether they want to vote for a Black and South Asian woman.
“Let’s just face it. There’s a lot of sexist, racist white dudes out there in America who don’t like Trump, but just need a little extra validation,” one person familiar with the campaign’s thinking said. “And, bringing one of the people mentioned onto the ticket helps validate her among those constituents.”
Perhaps more important than a white male hopeful’s appeal to his own demographic is how he is received by suburban women of all races.
“They are feeling like you need somebody who can go in and talk to these suburban women,” a second person familiar with the campaign’s thinking said. “The internal polling is showing that’s who you’re targeting. You’re targeting them on reproductive rights. You’re targeting them on democracy. You’re targeting them on law and order. You’re not really trying to sell them on governing or on record or any of that, but these are sort of softer issues.”
The choice of a running mate is one of the few major decisions a vice president running for the top job can use to signal to voters that they have the judgment to be president. So while Harris could always make an outside-the-box pick, people close to her expect that she will put a high premium on those kinds of traditional criteria — campaign experience, ticket balance and personal relationship — that helped her land the job four years ago.
Harris will want “someone that she can trust,” said Karen Finney, a veteran Democratic operative who is close to Harris’ camp. “One of the things she’s probably learned as VP is that you need that. You need to have those voices, who are those people that you trust to tell you what you don’t want to hear.”
Or, as another longtime Democratic operative and donor said: “She doesn’t want to get stuck with someone because it’s advantageous politically.”
And yet the first order of business for Harris, and the party that has placed its trust in her, is beating Trump.
Harris campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz played down “any reporting on developments” in the process as “premature and speculative” in a statement issued Tuesday.
“Vice President Harris is considering a large pool of qualified candidates, and will choose a partner that shares her commitment to fighting for the middle class, protecting Americans’ freedoms, and protecting our democracy,” Munoz said. “And when that candidate is chosen, together they will [handily] defeat the Trump-Vance ticket in November.”
As she looks to make her decision, Harris has surrounded herself with a tight circle of aides and advisers. The vetting process is being led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, and Harris has been traveling with Tony West, a former Holder lieutenant at the Justice Department who is also her brother-in-law. Her chief of staff, Lorraine Voles; her campaign chief of staff, Sheila Nix; and spokesman Brian Fallon — another Justice Department alumnus — are among those sources say she is consulting with.
Michael Blake, a finance committee member for the Harris campaign and founder and CEO of Kairos Democracy Project, said Harris has to find a running mate with a particular mix of attributes.
“It has to be someone she trusts and someone who actually is going to be a bulldog against this JD Vance nonsense,” Blake said.
If Harris is elected, she will be the first woman, first Black woman and first Asian American person to serve as president. That means the background of the person she puts on the ticket — and their ability to talk about hers — will be important, several people who spoke to NBC News for this story said.
“Race, absolutely, is paramount,” Blake said. “You have to pick someone who can go into spaces and be direct that this Black woman is ready to be president. And, I tie it in a lot of ways to Biden. I was with them in 2008 in Michigan when Sen. Biden went to Macomb County and gave a speech and he said, ‘I was with Barack Obama at the convention. He’s a good man. He’s a good father.’”
In other words, now that she’s about to take Biden’s place on the ticket, she may need a Biden of her own.
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