Who Will Be Kamala Harris’s Veep Pick? Here Are the Finalists

Vice President Kamala Harris is slated to pick her running mate by next week—the latest step in the Democratic Party’s newly energized bid to stay in the White House come November.

In the days since President Joe Biden bowed out of the race and endorsed Harris in his stead, the political-pundit class and everyday Americans have been throwing out their guesses for who will join the presumptive Democratic nominee’s historic 2024 ticket. The Harris campaign is expected to announce its VP pick by Tuesday. The duo will make their first combined campaign stop in Philadelphia, before touring seven swing states in four days, according to Politico. “Harris is planning to interview potential vice presidential nominees in the upcoming days,” the outlet reported earlier this week; when asked if she’d made her pick yet, Harris responded, “not yet.”

Before Biden had even dropped out of the race, people began questioning who Harris ought to pick as her running mate, with many positing, both jokingly and not, that she would pick a white man—an assumption that drew backlash from those questioning why another woman or person of color couldn’t join the team.

By the middle of last week, Harris’s team had reportedly requested vetting materials from numerous top Democrats, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker, US senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, and Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina governor Roy Cooper were previously under consideration, but both have since bowed out.

While other Democrats beyond this list could theoretically get tapped, three potential candidates are reportedly the current front-runners: Kelly, Shapiro, and Walz.

Senator Mark Kelly

First elected to the Senate in a 2020 special election, Kelly is a Navy veteran and former astronaut from the Grand Canyon state.

Choosing Kelly would mean a West Coast–heavy ticket. However, the senator has firsthand experience working on immigration policy from a border state. Plus, his past wins with Latino voters could help secure that bloc. Kelly has also been a vocal supporter of abortion access, and recently switched his stance and endorsed pro-union legislation.

Long before running for office, Kelly stood beside his wife, former US representative Gabby Giffords, after she survived an assassination attempt in 2011 that left six dead and several injured. Kelly’s experience with supporting a powerful woman in office could benefit him as a running mate for Harris, who has already faced deeply misogynistic and racist attacks from the right. According to recent polling on the veepstakes, Kelly is the most well-known of the picks, and holds high favorability.

Following Harris’s campaign announcement, Kelly shared on X that he believed she was the candidate to defeat former president Donald Trump, adding, “Gabby and I will do everything we can to elect her President of the United States.” When asked about his spot in the veepstakes, Kelly said that it “ain’t about me.”

Governor Josh Shapiro

As Pennsylvania attorney general during the 2020 election cycle, Shapiro repeatedly—and successfully—fought lawsuits filed by Trump and his legal team after he lost the state to Biden. “I went to court against Donald Trump 43 times and won every single time because I stayed focused on the law and I stayed focused on applying the law without fear or favor,” Shapiro told New York magazine earlier this year.

Still, the 51-year-old has faced scrutiny for being pro-school-choice—and for his staunchly pro-Isreal views, which have already soured some progressive voters on his potential vice presidential candidacy. If elected, Shapiro would be the first Jewish vice president in American history.

Additionally, the director of the National Women’s Defense League has urged Harris to consider Shapiro’s handling of a sexual harassment complaint against his aide when choosing a VP, saying that he “should have done a better job” in that situation. (A spokesperson told the Pennsylvania Capital-Star that the governor and his administration “take every allegation of discrimination and harassment extremely seriously and have robust procedures in place to thoroughly investigate all reports.”)

As leader of one of Democrats most coveted states ahead of the election, Shapiro offers Harris an opportunity to secure Pennsylvania in 2024. While the choice to first visit Philadelphia with her new running mate may seem like a wink at a potential Shapiro win, a Harris campaign aide “cautioned against reading too much into the first city chosen for the tour,” per Politico.

In 2022, Shapiro won by nearly 15 points against his opponent, Doug Mastriano, who was backed by Trump. According to polling from this year, 42% of Republicans and 39% of independent voters have positive opinions about Shapiro’s track record in his first term as governor.

Governor Tim Walz

Tim Walz has been in public office since 2007. He served as a US representative from Minnesota’s First Congressional District for 12 years before becoming governor of the midwestern state in 2019. Prior to running for office, Walz was a member of the Army National Guard and a longtime teacher and football coach.

In the past few weeks, Walz has been active on TV news, sharing his family’s experience using IVF reproductive care, promoting his administration’s free school meals program, and pushing back against the Trump-Vance ticket as just plain “weird.”

“I grew up in a small town. JD Vance is dead wrong about what makes small-town America tick,” Walz said. “Small towns don’t work because everyone is closed-minded and prejudiced. They work because people mind their own damn business.”

Walz has signaled an openness to rethinking his past positions. At one point, he had an A rating from the National Rifle Association and received their endorsement. Later, he denounced the gun rights organization and proposed a ban on assault weapons. He also shifted his tone on how restrictive vetting should be on refugees.

Walz has stood out in the veepstakes for his blunt, conversational speaking style as well as his focus on family and local issues. He’s reportedly in a group chat with dozens of current and former members of Congress dedicated to trash-talking one another’s favorite sports teams.