Three months before they embark on a five-day tour of the nation’s most heated battleground states, Kamala Harris was scheduled to unveil her running mate on Tuesday.
Since taking Joe Biden’s place at the top of the Democratic ticket, the US vice president’s campaign has gotten off to an incredibly quick start, shattering financial records and eliminating any advantage that Republican opponent Donald Trump had amassed.
The front-runner for Harris’s vice presidential choice is Democratic up-and-comer Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who is thought to be the favorite over a number of other state governors, a US senator, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
US media reported Monday that Harris had narrowed one of the most consequential choices of her political career to Shapiro and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and would likely make her decision public in a video announcement.
Less than a day before their swing state journey, Harris was maintaining the suspense about her running mate, telling supporters in a text message Monday evening that “I have not made my decision yet.”
Harris, 59, and her newly minted deputy will hold a rally Tuesday at Temple University in Philadelphia before hitting Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday, Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday.
She was also intending to hold events in battlegrounds North Carolina on Thursday and Georgia on Friday, but local media outlets reported that a tropical storm battering southeastern states had forced their postponement. There was no response from the Harris campaign on a request for details.
Shapiro enjoys immense popularity in Pennsylvania, the biggest of the six or seven swing states that have determined recent US elections. This is perceived as providing Harris with an advantage in what is regarded as crucial territory for both Democrats and Republicans.
In addition to being the first Jewish vice president of the United States, the 51-year-old would round out a ticket that already included the only woman to hold the office of president.
But his pro-Israel stance and management of pro-Palestinian demonstrations have provoked a leftist backlash, and Democrats want to make sure that progressive and anti-Israel protestors don’t ruin their mid-August convention in Chicago.
