If the D nomination is Harris, who should she pick as VP candidate?

This has the potential to be a long discussion, and I think it’s worth it’s own thread.

Some of the contenders:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/21/harris-potential-vp-picks-biden-dropout-00170204

I don’t think she gets to pick. She might want some particular person, but the establishment will have to agree that it is the best choice to help win the election.

I don’t know the landscape very well, but I feel like winning the presidency is still kinda a long-shot, and VP doesn’t matter all that much (especially when the candidate is under 60 and apparently healthy) so my priority is not losing any key Democratic constraints on the president. That means that I think Democratic senators, representatives, and governors who are at all likely to be replaced by a Republican should be off-limits.

1 Like

Why would she not get to pick? Are the power brokers at the convention going to force a VPOTUS pick that she doesn’t want? Why?

1 Like

I’m sure she will have a lot of input. I don’t think she has God Emperor Trump status where she can just pick who ever will kiss the ring best.

I’m not sure that I agree that they should be, but I think that Andy Beshear is unlikely to get the nod for this reason. I don’t see her carrying Kentucky even with him on the ticket. (Don’t forget that Al Gore lost his home state in 2000 even being at the top of the ticket.) And Kentucky only has 8 electoral votes anyway.

The North Carolina Governor might be worth it if he can bring North Carolina’s 16 EVs with him. Obama carried NC in 2008 even without a North Carolinian on the ticket. I know nothing about [checks notes] Roy Cooper though… just crunching numbers rather than making a qualitative assessment. NC seems a lot more winnable for Harris than KY.

1 Like

Trump is hardly the first candidate to pick his running mate.

No he’s not but far more often it’s a compromise to balance the ticket not unlike Trump’s first pick, or Joe Biden with Barrack Obama, GHWB couldn’t have been Reagan’s first choice after the contentious primary with the Voodoo Economics comment. But sure I guess people have made their own picks with little or no input from the party like Trump did with Vance.

CNN apparently says short list is Kelly (AZ), Beshear (KY), Shapiro ¶, and Cooper (NC).

3 of them can all potentially bring along their swing state. And all 4 are straight white Christian men who can balance that foreign born heathen women.

I’m just anticipating some repugnican lines of attack

1 Like

Shapiro is Jewish

1 Like

Interesting Harris mom is Hindi, her dad is Christian, she’s a Baptist and she’s married to a Jewish man. She’s got most of the major faiths outside of Muslim covered!

3 Likes

Ah, my bad.

Manchin says “not me”.

Declining a position he never was going to be offered.

4 Likes

For example:

Trump has managed to get the strong voices counter to him either silenced or leave the political space. I was saddened when Paul Ryan quit. The u-turn by Mitch after the Jan 6th thing was astounding. Many other strong voices left the stage at the 2022 elections. The Republicans also fluffed the Jan 6 impeachment by thinking it was a democrat vs republican thing when they should have been fighting for their party. Things like the RNC have been reshaped. Trump now has an open check and he is cashing it in.

1 Like

I gotta try that… “Dear Oliver Wyman…”

3 Likes