According to the Harris campaign, Harris will launch a four-day battleground tour in Philadelphia. After Philadelphia, Harris and her vice presidential pick will campaign in seven swing states in four days, traveling to western Wisconsin, Detroit, Michigan, Raleigh, North Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada.
In line with this, Harris is expected to announce the decision as soon as Aug. 5, ahead of the four-day battleground tour.
The shortlist of candidates under consideration has been whittled down in recent weeks to just five: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
Other contenders who used to be at the top include North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who has taken himself out of the running, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and retired United States Navy Admiral William McRaven. (Related: Obamas endorse Kamala Harris’ presidential bid.)
However, the location of the first stop suggests that Shapiro, a trained lawyer who served as a state attorney general with a legal background similar to Harris, has moved to the top of a short list of running mates and that the Harris campaign had decided the state that Democrats won back from Republicans in 2020 is a must-win once again. Shapiro himself has been campaigning hard for Harris all across Pennsylvania.
For instance, on July 22, Shapiro headlined a Harris rally with Whitmer in Philadelphia. The following day, he promoted the Internal Revenue Service's free tax filing program alongside Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and on July 26, he spoke at a Harris endorsement event with building trades unions.
Shapiro’s stock among Democrats rose after he swamped his Republican opponent for governor, Doug Mastriano, in the last gubernatorial election in 2022, winning over 56 percent of the vote in a state known for tight elections. Shapiro, who just took office last year, would also become the second Jewish nominee for vice president on a major ticket in U.S. history, following Joe Lieberman's failed 2000 bid with former Vice President Al Gore.
After a visit to a youth basketball program in Philadelphia on July 30, Shapiro praised Harris as "a tough-as-nails prosecutor" while stating that former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is "not exactly off to a good start."
Harris says decision about her running mate still pending
Despite the speculations, a Harris campaign aide has warned the public against reading too much into the first city chosen for the tour.
Even Harris herself has revealed that a decision regarding her running mate remains pending. She also responded "not yet" when reporters asked her on July 30 whether she had chosen her vice presidential candidate.
Shapiro disclosed that same day that he had not communicated with Harris since July 21, the day President Joe Biden withdrew from the race. Shapiro remained tight-lipped about his aspirations for the vice presidential role even when asked if he had submitted vetting materials to Harris' team.
"The vice president has a very deeply personal decision to make right now: who she wants to run with, who she wants to govern with, and who can be by her side when she has to make the toughest decisions for the American people. I trust she will make that decision on her own terms when she is ready," he said.
Head over to KamalaHarris.news for more stories on Kamala Harris' campaign.
Watch the video below that talks about the possibility of Barack Obama's return to the White House through Harris' candidacy.
This video is from the Christ Essential Ministries channel on Brighteon.com.
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