Harris narrows VP search to six, plans to interview them this weekend

Vice President Harris has narrowed her search for a running mate to six finalists and is planning to interview them this weekend, putting her on the cusp of what is likely to be the most scrutinized decision of her whirlwind candidacy, according to two people familiar with the process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential deliberations.

The vetting of Harris’s potential running mates — an arduous process that typically takes several months and a painstaking analysis of each prospect’s strengths and weaknesses — has been condensed to two weeks, after President Biden made the extraordinary announcement July 21 that he would not seek reelection. The speedy process raises the risk of a misstep, but it also could lend an air of excitement as Harris barnstorms through swing states with her running mate next week heading toward the Democratic National Convention, which begins on Aug. 19.

Harris’s finalists are Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota, as well as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, the people said. Representatives for Beshear, Buttigieg and Shapiro confirmed that those officials had canceled previously scheduled plans for this weekend.

The finalists are all White men, reflecting an assumption that voters would prefer gender and racial balance with the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent leading a major-party presidential ticket. Four years ago, Biden selected Harris amid a sense by many in the Democratic Party that it was important to have a woman and a person of color on the ticket.

The vetting process, overseen by former attorney general Eric Holder and a team of lawyers at Covington & Burling, was largely wrapped up on Thursday, ahead of interviews with the finalists. The prospects met first with senior Harris advisers — including Jen O’Malley Dillon, the campaign chair, and Sheila Nix, Harris’s campaign chief of staff — before the weekend’s scheduled meetings with the vice president, some of which are expected to be conducted virtually.

Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Harris’s campaign, confirmed the process is underway but declined to comment further. “We do not expect to have additional updates until the Vice President announces who will be serving as her running mate and as the next Vice President of the United States,” he said in a statement.

As Harris moves toward her final decision, supporters of the hopefuls have been jockeying in public and behind the scenes to promote their preferred selection. Some Democrats are pushing for Harris to select Shapiro, arguing that he could help her win Pennsylvania, a must-win state for Democrats. But some more liberal members of the party have raised concerns about Shapiro’s views on Israel and his sharp criticism of some of the campus protests in response to the Israel-Gaza war.

Walz, a former high school teacher who served in Congress, has quickly become the favorite of the party’s liberal wing and many members of Congress because of his appeal in the Midwest. Kelly, also seen as a top contender, could help Harris in Arizona and bolster her credentials on immigration, as Republicans hammer her for her role as Biden’s point person on the root causes of migration from Central America.

Buttigieg, seen as more of a long shot among the finalists, has earned plaudits for his slew of TV appearances in recent weeks, particularly for his ability to spar with hosts on Fox News.

As the party awaits Harris’s selection, her campaign has announced that she and her running mate will launch a tour of swing states Tuesday, taking them to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

Harris’s campaign has brought on Liz Allen, the current undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs at the State Department, to serve as chief of staff to Harris’s running mate. Allen worked as Harris’s communications director when she was Biden’s running mate on the 2020 ticket.

Allen also served under Biden when he was vice president, and then served as deputy White House communications director at the end of Barack Obama’s second term.

Ashley Etienne, who served as Harris’s first communications director in the White House, said the vice president will want to pick someone who “has the ability to round her out ideologically and someone who can help her expand her base of support.” But she cautioned against the idea that Harris will pick the most obvious or conventional running mate.

“I do believe there’s a part of her that really likes the underdog, the unlikely suspect, the unusual suspect, the person who you don’t really expect to have risen to that level,” Etienne said. “Someone who had to climb a few mountains to get to the top.”

As he was leaving the White House on Friday, Biden confirmed that he had spoken to Harris about her running-mate choice but did not go into detail. Asked what qualities Harris should prioritize as she makes her decision, Biden told reporters, “I’ll let her work that out.”

Harris’s selection comes about three weeks after Republican nominee Donald Trump chose Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate, an unorthodox choice given Vance’s relatively limited time in national politics, his claim to fame as author of the memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” and his previous sharp criticisms of Trump. Since his selection, Vance has come under fire for an array of previous statements, including his dismissal of Democrats such as Harris as “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable.”

[Trump ramps up his defense of Vance after one of the rockiest VP rollouts in recent memory]

One of the tasks of Harris’s running mate will be to tangle with Vance, and the two may face off in a vice-presidential debate.

Harris’s choice also comes as she officially became the Democratic presidential nominee on Friday, with party delegates casting their votes online. Although the delegates are likely to reenact the nomination process in more colorful fashion at the upcoming convention, party leaders wanted to formalize it earlier to ensure that Harris would meet the ballot qualification deadlines in every state.

Harris began considering potential running mates shortly after Biden stepped aside two weeks ago, and people close to Harris’s campaign said last week that she was looking at roughly a dozen potential running mates. That number has since been trimmed by half.

One prospective candidate, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, withdrew from consideration earlier this week, saying it “just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket.” He added in a statement, “As I’ve said from the beginning, (Harris) has an outstanding list of people from which to choose, and we’ll all work to make sure she wins.”

Cooper did not provide a specific reason for declining to be part of the process, but one potential complication was a provision in the North Carolina Constitution that says the lieutenant governor becomes the acting governor if the governor leaves the state. If Cooper were out campaigning for Harris, the acting governor would be Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a GOP firebrand running for governor.