By Alan Wooten
Vetting for potential candidates to run alongside Kamala Harris in her bid for president is under way, with a number of prominent elected Democrats under consideration, according to published reports.
A Tuesday afternoon report by the Wall Street Journal said the Harris campaign sent vetting materials to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
A separate report from USA Today listed the same names but added former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond as a possible candidate. The Gannett publication said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were not on the list.
Another afternoon report, by The Hill, listed Cooper, Shapiro, Whitmer, Walz and Kelly.
Cooper, Shapiro, Whitmer and Kelly represent four of the seven battleground states. Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada are the others, with 93 electoral college votes among the seven.
Whitmer told a Michigan television station on Monday she doesn’t plan to leave the state.
Shapiro was a first-time gubernatorial winner in 2022, when Democrats flipped a U.S. Senate seat in his state on the strength of John Fetterman’s win over Donald Trump-endorsed Mehmet Oz. And it wasn’t as close as expected – 51.2%-46.3% – despite health questions dogging Fetterman.
Cooper is unbeaten in 13 elections – three for the North Carolina House of Representatives, four in the state Senate, four four-year terms for attorney general, and two four-year terms for governor. Finishing his second four-year term in December, state law prevents him running for a third consecutive and he has not announced plans.
There’s no indication of when Harris will name the choice. She had a previously scheduled stop in Milwaukee, Wis., on Tuesday that was expected to serve as a campaign rally. National media will have eyes toward Charlotte on Wednesday when Trump, the former president and Republican nominee, stumps at the Bojangles’ Coliseum.
