US election campaign: Who will be Kamala Harris' vice president?

Handelsblatt US election campaign: Who will be Kamala Harris' vice president? Dörner, Astrid • 7 hours • 4 minutes reading time The Democrat is heading for the nomination as the Democratic presidential candidate. Now she just needs a "running mate". Four politicians have a good chance of winning the post. Kamala Harris is keeping a close eye on the time until the US presidential election. "We've made it through one day, 105 are still ahead of us," the Vice President wrote on Monday on the short message service X before she left for her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. In the first 36 hours after Joe Biden's withdrawal from the race for the presidency, the Democrat has won the support of powerful party friends and collected record amounts of donations. By Monday evening, Harris already had more than enough delegates on her side to theoretically secure the nomination, according to an unofficial poll by the AP news agency. Now the 59-year-old is "facing her first important decision," says a strategist in Washington. "She has to choose carefully who should run with her as a possible vice president." Harris knows exactly what is important. After all, she herself moved into the White House in 2021 as vice president with Joe Biden. A number of candidates are currently being discussed as so-called "running mates." Here is a selection of the most important: Josh Shapiro The 51-year-old has been governor of Pennsylvania since 2023 and is considered a rising star in the party. Josh Shapiro "is very popular," says an observer in Washington. Pennsylvania is also a hotly contested state in the presidential election. Shapiro himself has portrayed himself as a do-it-yourselfer. "Get Shit Done" is his slogan. He has received a lot of recognition in the past for the rapid reconstruction of a collapsed stretch of highway. Mark Kelly The senator from the swing state of Arizona served in the Gulf War and previously worked as an astronaut. He would therefore support Harris primarily with his expertise in national security. Mark Kelly is married to Gabby Giffords, a former congresswoman who was assassinated in 2011. Since then, both have been strongly committed to stronger gun controls - an issue that could go down well with female swing voters. Because Arizona is a border state, Kelly takes a tougher line on border protection than most other Democrats. This could fend off attacks from Republicans who accuse Democrats of supporting uncontrolled immigration and open borders. Roy Cooper The governor of North Carolina is a moderate Democrat. Before being elected governor in 2016, Roy Cooper served as the state's attorney general for four terms and sat in the House of Representatives and the Senate, where he was majority leader. Cooper wants to expand Medicaid, a state health care system for low-income people. He is also strongly committed to the fight against climate change and public education. J.B. Pritzker The governor of Illinois is impressive, among other things, because of his wealth. According to the Bloomberg news agency, it is $4.3 billion. J.B. Pritzker is already using his money to support candidates and issues that are important to him. "He could also raise large sums for the presidential election campaign," believes a banker in New York. Pritzker is also said to have used his influence to ensure that the Democratic Party convention takes place in his state in August. The Democrats are meeting in Chicago in mid-August. When Pritzker spoke out in favor of Harris on Monday, he emphasized that it was "high time" that the USA elected a woman president. Pritzker would also be a good signal to Corporate America, believes an investor who has been collecting donations for the Democrats for years. Many managers and bankers are currently irritated. They didn't exactly think Biden was a friend of the economy, and now they're worried that Harris is distancing himself even further from them. At the same time, many entrepreneurs don't feel they're in good hands with the Republican candidate Donald Trump and his vice president J.D. Vance. Vance is a strong advocate for unions and wants to break up large tech companies, which isn't going down well on Wall Street either. Time is running out Kamala Harris now has to decide quickly between these - and possibly other - candidates. She only has a good three months left to prepare her election campaign, "and that means she has practically no room for making bad decisions," the Washington strategist points out. At least there are no competitors who want to run against her so far. A surprisingly large number of influential party colleagues have come out in favor of her as a candidate since Sunday afternoon.