WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris will introduce her new running mate at a rally Tuesday night in Philadelphia, but with just hours to go before the event, her choice remains a mystery.
In recent days, she has focused on a trio of potential finalists: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, but decisions beyond that are not yet publicly known.
The Harris campaign planned to make the announcement via video message before the rally, though the exact timing remains unclear, according to a person involved in the planning who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail the discussions that took place behind closed doors.
Kamala Harris is set to become the Democratic presidential nominee
It would be similar to how then-candidate Joe Biden revealed Harris as his vice presidential pick during the pandemic-plagued 2020 presidential race.
It will be another major step in the barely two weeks since the vice president took over as the Democratic frontrunner ahead of the November election, as she has struggled to build a campaign and breathe new life into the Democratic race against Republican Donald Trump.
Harris, her second choice Doug Emhoff and her second choice are expected to appear together at an evening rally in Philadelphia, reminiscent of a joint appearance by Biden and Harris in 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Similarly, in 2016, newly selected running mate Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia appeared with Hillary Clinton in Miami.
After their trip to Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Harris and her running mate will spend the next five days traveling thousands of miles across the country, visiting key states. They will visit Eau Claire, Wisconsin and Detroit on Wednesday. But a planned stop in Savannah, Georgia, has been postponed due to the effects of Tropical Storm Debby, and rain associated with it could also disrupt a planned stop in Durham, North Carolina.
Later in the week, Harris and his No. 2 will travel to Phoenix and Las Vegas.
The fact that the schedule was set before his running mate was identified recalls a cliffhanger-like scenario that Trump created by delaying the choice of his vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, until after last month’s Republican National Convention was underway in Milwaukee.
Kamala Harris prepares for a rally in Philadelphia to introduce her running mate. But her choice remains unknown
Vance, meanwhile, intends to overshadow Harris’s debut Tuesday. He plans to arrive in Philadelphia ahead of the Democratic nominee and deliver his own speech at noon as a counterprogram.
The senator then announced he would follow Harris and her running mate to his own events in Wisconsin, Michigan and North Carolina. It’s unclear how the weather might affect his trip south.
In announcing Vance’s trip, Trump’s campaign blamed Harris and Democratic policies for a litany of woes, saying that “prices are skyrocketing, the cost of living has skyrocketed, illegal immigrants are flooding into our country, and crime is rampant. The stock market is crashing because of Kamala Harris’ weak, failed, and dangerously liberal policies.”
Harris’ campaign, for its part, welcomed the overlap in destinations.
“We appreciate that JD Vance is providing voters in key states with exactly the split screen that defines the choice this November,” Harris campaign spokesman Charles Lutvak said.
The vice president’s campaign said it has invited faith leaders, union members and state and local elected officials to participate in upcoming events. Harris and her running mate plan to rallies in a variety of venues, from large arenas to college campuses. The trip will also allow them to meet with voters in smaller venues like union halls, family-friendly restaurants and campaign field offices.
At a fundraiser in Minneapolis on Monday night, Walz said Trump had stolen America’s joy and limited freedoms.
“It wasn’t an insult to call these guys weird,” Walz said of the label he’s applied to the Republican ticket in recent days. “It was an observation.”
It’s a characterization that has since gained momentum in Democratic circles.
If Harris opts for Shapiro, who is from the Philadelphia suburbs, Tuesday’s event with her would be a homecoming of sorts.
Shapiro’s candidacy has drawn criticism from some Arab Americans and activist groups wary of his outspoken solidarity with Israel in its bid to eliminate Hamas during the Gaza war. But Shapiro has strong support in Pennsylvania — one of Democrats’ key “blue wall” states along with Michigan and Wisconsin — that Harris will seek to shore up before November.
At a “Progressives for Harris” organizing call Monday night that organizers said drew tens of thousands of attendees, speakers repeatedly derided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an “authoritarian” who was needlessly targeting and killing civilians in Gaza.
Some Democratic National Convention delegates who backed “uncommitted” over Biden because of his administration’s support for Israel also suggested they were not yet ready to back Harris until they knew more about her policies, including whether she would work more diligently for a cease-fire in the fighting in Gaza.
But participants on the call refrained from criticizing Harris’ potential running mates, focusing instead on Trump.
“Trump and J.D. Vance are promising new tax cuts for megamillionaires and billionaires,” said Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. “This election is our chance to tax the rich and make them pay their fair share.”
As for Kelly, some congressional Democrats have promoted the former astronaut whose state shares more than 400 miles of border with Mexico. They say his selection could help defuse Trump’s arguments that the Biden-Harris administration’s immigration policies are too lax — though some labor leaders have suggested the senator isn’t as pro-union as they’d like.
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