Harris' top VP options all have drawbacks that could take them out of contention
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate for the 2024 election cycle by Tuesday, as four frontrunners vie to land on the ticket.
Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Sen. Mark Kelley, D-Ariz., have emerged as top contenders for the vice presidency under a potential Harris administration. Each candidate could bring political benefits to Harris’ election run, though each also must walk a political tightrope over potential pitfalls that could prevent him from joining the campaign.
Harris officially clinched her party's 2024 presidential nomination on Friday, earning more than a majority of votes from convention delegates, the DNC reported. Harris rose to the top of the election cycle following President Biden dropping out of the race last month amid mounting concerns over his mental fitness and health.
Pennsylvania is again a key battleground state this election cycle, after previously voting for Donald Trump in 2016, when he won against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and voting blue for President Biden in the 2020 election. Shapiro, who has led the state since last year, could bolster Harris’ chances of locking up its key 19 electoral votes.
Shapiro, who previously served as the state’s attorney general and in local political roles in Montgomery County, is largely supportive of Democratic policies and proposals while also working to portray himself as a moderate in the Rust Belt state that includes massive cities such as the Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
Shapiro, who is the state’s third Jewish governor, is facing resistance from protesters and voters over his views on the Israel-Hamas war that began on Oct. 7.
Shapiro denounced universities during the 2023-2024 school year for failing to protect students as campus protests raged against Israel and the ongoing war in the Middle East.
"What we’re seeing at Columbia and what we’re seeing in some campuses across America, where universities can’t guarantee the safety and security of their students, it’s absolutely unacceptable," Shapiro told Politico in April.
"If the universities in accordance with their policies can’t guarantee the safety and security and well-being of the students, then I think it is incumbent upon a local mayor or local governor or local town councilor, whoever is the local leadership there, to step in and enforce the law," he added.
Anti-Israel protests have been a powder keg situation in the U.S. since shortly after the Oct. 7 terror attack by Hamas. During the 2023-24 college school year, agitators and student protesters flooded college campuses nationwide to protest the war in Israel, which also included spiking instances of antisemitism and Jewish students publicly speaking out that they did not feel safe on some campuses.
Agitators on Columbia University’s campus, for example, took over the school's Hamilton Hall building, while schools such as UCLA, Harvard and Yale worked to clear spiraling student encampments where protesters demanded their elite schools completely divest from Israel.
The University of Pennsylvania also faced widespread protests and a tent encampment against Israel, with Shaprio condemning the school’s then-president, Liz Magill, for failing to denounce genocide against Jews during congressional testimony. Magill resigned from the elite school in December amid widespread outrage over her handling of campus antisemitism.
The Philadelphia Inquirer also unearthed an opinion piece Shapiro wrote for his college newspaper in 1993 that claimed peace "will never come" to the Middle East, arguing Palestinians are "too battle-minded" to coexist with Israel.
"Using history as a precedent, peace between Arabs and Israelis is virtually impossible and will never come," the then-University of Rochester student wrote.
Anti-Israel critics have since labeled Shapiro "Genocide Josh," arguing he’s too supportive of Israel, which anti-Israel protesters say is leveling genocide against residents of Gaza amid the war. Democrats have said that left-wing voters holding anti-Israel views are singling Shapiro out, as he’s the only Jewish potential veep reportedly at the top of Harris’ contender list.
"There are several incredible options for vice president. The superb Governor of Pennsylvania, @JoshShapiroPA, is one of them. Singling him out, or applying a double standard to him over the war in Gaza, is antisemitic and wrong. Don’t go there," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., posted on X.
Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who has notably been a staunch defender of Israel amid the war, has meanwhile remained mum on his support of Shapiro.
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Politico reported Saturday evening that Fetterman’s advisers met with the Harris team to allegedly convey concerns the senator has with Shapiro potentially running on the ticket, most notably reportedly citing the pair’s time together on Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons, which reviews criminal cases to determine potential clemency for an offender. Fetterman allegedly worked to revitalize the board and offer second chances to convicts, while Shapiro reportedly took a more heavy-handed approach, Politico reported.
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Shapiro has earned endorsements from key Pennsylvania Democrats to run alongside Harris, including from longtime Sen. Bob Casey and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, and is received favorably by voters in his home state, polls show, which could give him an edge over his other reported VP challengers.
Kentucky’s governor, Andy Beshear, has served as the Bluegrass State’s leader since 2019, and is seen as a centrist Democrat who could appeal to moderate voters at the federal level.
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Republicans, however, have been quick to call out the Kentucky governor as a poor potenital choice as Harris' running mate, including Kentucky Rep. James Comer, who slammed Beshear for reportedly trying to "reinvent his image from a wimpy choir boy to a liberal attack dog."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a fellow Kentuckian, also slammed Beshear over the weekend for leaving the state to reportedly meet with Harris, while also quipping it’s "no surprise for a guy used to having jobs served up to him on a silver platter." Beshear is a second-generation politician, the son of former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, who served as governor for two terms and as attorney general for one term.
Unlike Shapiro, who could deliver a key battleground state if named as Harris’ running mate, Beshear comes from a deep red state that is unlikely to vote for Harris. In 2012, presidential candidate Mitt Romney carried the state, which was followed by Trump carrying the state in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Beshear’s age of 46 and positioning himself as a moderate Democrat could aid his efforts to land on the ticket, but he is also facing criticisms from left-wing voters for his stance on abortion.
Following the Supreme Court’s landmark Dobbs decision in 2022, abortion was essentially banned in Kentucky, allowing just a few exceptions. Beshear is pro-choice and campaigned during his re-election last year to champion abortion access, but activists in the state say he could do more to broaden access to the procedure, NBC News reported.
"Yes, he’s doing better than a conservative would, and I’m thankful for that," Tamarra Wieder, the Kentucky state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates told the outlet. "But I worry about how that record will look on a national stage."
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Harris has meanwhile been lauded by progressives for her vow to protect abortion access, immediately lambasting the leaked Supreme Court decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade and effectively ended recognition of a constitutional right to abortion.
"How dare they?" Harris said in a speech for a left-wing PAC focused on electing pro-choice Democrats, EMILYs List, in May 2022 after the decision was leaked to Politico.
"How dare they tell a woman what she can and cannot do with her own body?" Harris asked. "How dare they try to stop her from determining her own future? How dare they try to deny women their rights and their freedoms?"
In March, she also became the first sitting president or vice president to visit an abortion provider.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been in politics for decades, serving in the U.S. Congress from 2007 until 2019, when he was elected governor of the Gopher State. He won his gubernatorial re-election in 2022.
Walz, similar to Shapiro, could provide a boon to the Harris campaign if he helps aid voter turnout for the Democratic ticket in the battleground state.
Walz’s name has received far more national attention in recent weeks compared to his previous years in politics, and was among the first Democrats to lambaste Republicans as "weird" in a political insult that’s gaining momentum in the 2024 cycle.
Walz, however, has faced criticism for his handling of COVID-19 and riots that rocked Minneapolis in 2020, Fox Digital previously reported.
"[H]e's been a disaster for Minnesota and is by far the most partisan governor that I can remember having," Minnesota GOP Chairman David Hann told Fox News Digital last week. "Going back to 2020, certainly – he did nothing to try to stop the riots going on in Minneapolis. I think he was fearful of alienating his ‘progressive’ base, who were supporting the riots. Kamala Harris was raising money for the rioters."
Some critics point to Walz's memorandum mandating indoor masking during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as setting up a hotline to report residents who violated COVID-19 mandates, as FOX 9 Minneapolis reported at the time.
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly has perhaps the most nationally recognized name in the pool of Harris’ potential running mates, as he’s a retired NASA astronaut and husband to retired Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011.
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Kelly, 60, was elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2020 election cycle, with his win marking the first time since 1953 that Arizona has had two Democratic senators.
Arizona could serve as another key state for the Democratic Party’s efforts to hold onto the White House following Biden’s departure from the race. Trump won the state in 2016, but Biden was victorious in the 2020 election. Kelly could help bolster support for Harris in the state, which also sits along the nation’s border with Mexico during an election that includes voter outrage over the immigration crisis under the Biden administration.
If Kelly is chosen as Harris’ running mate and the pair win in the November election, he would leave behind a vacated Senate seat in the swing state, sparking some concern. Kelly brushed off worries over a Republican potentially winning the seat in a 2026 special election, arguing in comments to CNN that Democrats have historically performed well in state elections.
"Democrats have been really good about winning statewide races in the state of Arizona. We figured this out," he said. "We have a strong state party, and I imagine we’re going to be successful from now going into the future."
"I don’t think it’ll be an issue," he continued. "I think we’ve got a great slate of other Democrats, but this is not about me."
Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs would fill the seat with an interim candidate before the 2026 election.
Shortly following Biden announcing he was dropping out of the race, Kelly was seen as Harris' most likely pick for VP on prediction sites tracked by FOX Business, but he has since been unseated in the top spot by Shapiro.
Harris is expected to announce her running mate by Tuesday, and is reportedly meeting with the top veep contenders at the Naval Observatory on Sunday, including Walz, Shapiro and Kelly.
In addition to the four floated VP contenders, Harris is also reportedly considering Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to join her on the ticket.