The Democrats Who Could Be Kamala Harris’ Pick for Vice President
Joe Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 presidential race and all signs are pointing to Vice President Kamala Harris replacing him on the top of the ticket. The president has endorsed her, as have the majority of Democrats in the House and Senate. Harris has also received the backing of many of the party’s rising stars whom others hoped might toss their hats into the ring to become the Democratic nominee against Donald Trump. Harris hasn’t secured the nomination yet, but it’s hard to imagine anyone usurping her at this point — which means it’s time to start considering who she could tap as her running mate. Here are some of the most notable options:
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Josh Shapiro
Image Credit: Mark Makela/Getty Images Age: 51
Current job: Governor of Pennsylvania
Why he makes sense: Shapiro is a young, polished, and well-regarded governor of a crucial swing state and could help Harris bank 19 Electoral College votes. He has experience beating a Christian nationalist extremist in Doug Mastriano, who like J.D. Vance is also a veteran. Shapiro has built bipartisan appeal in the Keystone State, despite working as attorney general to block Team Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state. He was an early endorser of Harris for the nomination.
Why he may not be chosen: Shapiro is untested on the national stage. If he were selected to a winning ticket, it would increase GOP power in Pennsylvania, elevating the state’s Republican Senate leader to lieutenant governor.
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Mark Kelly
Image Credit: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc./Getty Images Age: 60
Current job: Senator from Arizona
Why he makes sense: He’s a former NASA astronaut who already bested a Peter Thiel-backed techbro to win his Senate seat in Blake Masters. His candidacy could help lock up Arizona and its 11 electoral votes. He’s married to Gabby Giffords, the former House member who was shot in the head, and adding Kelly would give the Democratic ticket the opportunity to campaign from a place of strength on gun issues, while undercutting Trump’s political boost from his assassination attempt.
Why he may not be chosen: Arizona is in the “nice to have it” category in terms of the Electoral College. Kelly’s bio probably plays well everywhere but it doesn’t give Democrats a specific boost in the must-win Midwest. Margins in the Senate are razor tight. If a Harris-Kelly ticket won the White House, his replacement would be a Democrat by law, picked by the state’s Democratic governor — but the seat would be up for grabs in a special election in 2026.
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Roy Cooper
Image Credit: Allison Joyce/Getty Images Age: 67
Current job: Governor of North Carolina
Why he makes sense: Cooper is a popular white-guy governor from a potential swing state who has been lauded for bringing Medicare expansion to North Carolina under the Affordable Care Act. He was quick to go on MSNBC to make the case for Harris the day after Biden dropped out. “If you want a nominee who can put Trump’s destruction of Roe v. Wade at center stage, if you want a nominee who actually prosecuted criminals like Trump, and if you want a nominee who can put Trump’s age and fitness at the forefront, Kamala Harris is the person,” he said. North Carolina has 16 Electoral College votes he could help lock up.
Why he may not be chosen: Cooper is not well known nationally, even to Democrats. North Carolina is a marginal swing state and it’s not clear how Cooper helps carry the crucial states of the Midwestern wall of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Anytime Cooper leaves the state, the very-MAGA Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson becomes acting governor.
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Tim Walz
Image Credit: Jim Vondruska/Getty Images Age: 60
Current job: Governor of Minnesota
Why he makes sense: Walz is one of the most successful governing progressives in the country. Since Democrats gained full control of Minnesota’s legislature in 2022, he has signed laws guaranteeing abortion rights, paid leave, free school meals, universal background checks, as well legalizing marijuana. Walz is a former House member and non-commissioned officer, a Command Sergeant Major, in the Army National Guard. Harris’ campaign has reportedly asked Walz for vetting materials as she considers who to choose, while Walz has been doing TV hits attacking the Trump campaign — including J.D. Vance, who he said “knows nothing about small-town America” in an interview with MSNBC.
Why he may not be chosen: Walz may have less national name recognition than anyone on this list, and though Minnesota is sometimes considered a battleground state, it hasn’t gone Republican in a presidential election since 1972. Walz was also overseeing the state during the unrest following George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, which Republicans could pounce on.
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Andy Beshear
Image Credit: Ryan C. Hermens/Lexington Herald-Leader/Tribune News Service/Getty Images Age: 46
Current job: Governor of Kentucky
Why he makes sense: Beshear is young, and a rare Democrat who has won election in recent years to govern a deep red state — twice. Polling has found that he’s popular among Trump supporters. Beshear endorsed Harris the day after Biden dropped out of the race, and in a tease of what he would bring as a vice presidential candidate, took a jab at J.D. Vance’s upbringing. “He’s not from here,” Beshear told MSNBC of Vance’s tales of being a son of Appalachia, despite growing up in suburban Ohio.
Why he may not be chosen: Beshear does not bring an obvious Electoral College boost, as Kentucky is very much Trump country.
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J.B. Pritzker
Image Credit: Eileen T. Meslar/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty Images Age: 59
Current job: Governor of Illinois
Why he makes sense: Pritzker would bring ballast and executive chops to the ticket. He has been a champion of abortion rights, helping preserve Illinois as a safe harbor for women’s reproductive health, and funding abortion rights ballot measures in key swing states. Pritzker has a history of riling up Trump with attacks on his character — and could leverage his fortune to aid the ticket.
Why he may not be chosen: Pritzker is a billionaire member of the family that controls the Hyatt hotel chain and doesn’t match well, class-wise, against J.D. Vance — though his status as an actual billionaire might get in Trump’s head. Pritzker is Midwestern, but Illinois itself is the furthest thing from a swing state.
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Pete Buttigieg
Image Credit: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images Age: 42
Current job: U.S. Transportation Secretary
Why he makes sense: Buttigieg is perhaps the most effective communicator in the Democratic stable and has already shown himself an able vivisector of J.D. Vance’s cynical rise to power. Buttigieg is a veteran, with exposure on the national stage thanks to his 2020 presidential primary run, who can talk up the Biden-Harris record, particularly its investments in infrastructure. He was the Midwestern mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Why he may not be chosen: Buttigieg, who is gay, is another candidate who communicates cultural change. Picking him would double down on the historic, youthful ticket, but risks animating the haters.
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Gavin Newsom
Image Credit: Wang Zhao/AFP/Getty Images Age: 56
Current job: Governor of California
Why he makes sense: Newsom led the world’s fifth-largest economy since 2019, helping the state transition into a green-energy powerhouse. He’s energetic, forward-looking, and a sharp communicator, and has been one of Biden’s most effective surrogates. He was also quick to endorse Harris as the nominee, writing that “no one is better to prosecute the case against Donald Trump’s dark vision.”
Why he may not be chosen: Deep-blue California is a popular punching bag for the right, and the state is currently having to make budget cuts to close a projected $68 billion deficit while contending with exorbitant housing costs. Newsom is also easy to caricature as a member of the liberal elite.
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Gretchen Whitmer
Image Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images Age: 52
Current job: Governor of Michigan
Why she makes sense: Whitmer is the popular governor of a critical swing state. She was also the target of a kidnapping plot, a biographical feature that could rob Trump of the punch of his current victim complex. Running two women on the ticket could double down on the Democrats’ strongest suit: women’s autonomy in the post-Roe era.
Why she may not be chosen: Whitmer like others on this list would accentuate change in this reactionary moment in American politics, risking backlash. For now Whitmer is denying an interest in joining the ticket, telling reporters, “I’m not planning to go anywhere. I am not leaving Michigan.”