Vetting and selecting vice presidential candidates usually takes months, but like every other aspect of this campaign, presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has been working at hyperspeed since she entered the race on July 21. With her new running mate expected to join her on stage no later than Tuesday, the selection process is now in its final hours.
On Friday, The New York Times reported that vetting of the potential running mates has been completed after a Washington law firm reviewed candidates and presented the results to Harris. Reports are that this high-speed vetting was no fun for the potentials.
Harris will reportedly be holding one-on-one sessions with each of the candidates over the weekend. It’s hard to imagine how vital these talks will be and how much is at stake. It’s enough to make the most confident governor, senator, or Cabinet secretary break out in a cold sweat.
The NCAA tournaments lead to a Final Four and Miss America selects five finalists, but The Washington Post says that Harris has selected six potential running mates for this final round: Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, and Tim Walz of Minnesota; Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
There are no real surprises on this list, and all of them have the popularity and ability to be both assets in the campaign and capable partners down the line.
The weekend meetings help explain a flurry of social media reports on Thursday revealing that candidates canceled appearances or shifted their schedules. It would not be surprising if all the members of the final six have shifted their calendars to make room for events this weekend, and possibly into next week.
Over the past two weeks, several potential candidates have removed themselves from the list. That includes Govs. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Gavin Newsom of California, and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. For those who are meeting with Harris this weekend, this is the final exam to end all final exams—one that could put them at her side for possibly the next eight years and open the potential for their own administration in the future.
A lot of the analysis of a potential running mate centers on how they might affect the election. Would Shapiro lock down Pennsylvania? Would Beshear be the perfect counter to Donald Trump’s running mate, faux hillbilly JD Vance? Is Walz the perfect “normal” guy to fend off Republican “weird”?
But Harris has to do more than pick a name to win this election. She has to select someone she can trust implicitly—someone who can do what she has done for Joe Biden and what Biden did for Barack Obama.
And it seems like that decision is still in progress.
