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.