The time-honored American tradition of the vice-presidential audition period is here.
If you turned on your television this weekend — mainly cable news, of course — you would have a difficult time not seeing it: a parade of Democrats vying, fairly overtly, to join Kamala Harris on the presidential ticket. These would-be running mates are mainly White men, a demographic some believe Harris should choose from because she is the first Black woman likely to be nominated to a major party ticket.
The possible No. 2s include Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who joined CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday to talk about why he has labeled Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), “weird”; and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who guested on “Fox News Sunday” in his personal capacity, arguing that Trump is “older and stranger” than he used to be.
Walz and Buttigieg are partaking in the not-so-subtle campaign of running to be the running mate, an exercise that’s been honed by prospective vice-presidential candidates, with varying degrees of success, throughout modern political history. From operating covert draft operations to appearing on a nominee’s favorite morning show, those on the veep shortlist are tasked with selling themselves, their record and their ability to effectively message — all without looking too thirsty or desperate.
This year’s crop of possible running mates is not shy, and their cases are being made especially publicly because of the abbreviated picking season given the sudden emergence of Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket following President Biden’s announcement he would not seek reelection just a week ago. The vice-presidential contenders are blitzing the airwaves and campaign trail to showcase their credentials and try on the role of Harris’s No. 2.
Over the weekend, Walz, Buttigieg and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker appeared on Sunday television shows, while Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro hit the campaign trail to stump on behalf of Harris.
In his TV hit, Walz coyly declined to say whether he had received vetting materials after forcefully defending his record in a state where Trump and Vance attended a rally the day before.
“What a monster,” Walz said during his CNN appearance, responding facetiously to potential attacks on him as a big-government liberal. “Kids are eating and having a full belly so they can go learn and women are making their own health-care decisions. And we’re a top-five business state and we also rank in the top three of happiness.”
Over on Fox, Buttigieg made the case that voters shared his concerns about Trump’s age and mental acuity, a day after telling the New York Times that he didn’t think it was “appropriate” to say whether he would be a good vice president or wanted to be vice president.
Harris is considering roughly a dozen vice-presidential candidates. But three Democrats have risen to the top, The Washington Post has previously reported, including Shapiro, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D). Kelly and Cooper appear to have kept a low profile over the weekend, not making the Sunday show circuit.
The unprecedented timeline for settling on a No. 2 has turbocharged the search for Harris’s replacement as the party’s vice-presidential nominee, as she is well on her way to the Democratic presidential nod after locking up over two-thirds of the delegates needed to become the official nominee over the course of her week-long candidacy. Those involved with the process cautioned that the search is in its early stages — though Harris is expected to make a decision by Aug. 7, in line with the Democratic Party’s plans to nominate a ticket virtually.
Harris made her own headlines over the weekend when she announced Sunday morning that she had raised $2o0 million since entering the race, two-thirds of it from first-time donors.
Several of the contenders deployed a new line of attack against Trump and Vance, adopted by Harris in recent comments and campaign statements: Trump and Vance are “just plain weird,” an attack on the Republican ticket that Walz debuted.
“They’re just weird, I mean they really are,” Pritzker said on ABC News’ “This Week,” calling out Trump for being “afraid of windmills” and Vance for advocating for higher tax rates for childless adults.
Buttigieg, who also appeared on MSNBC on Sunday, argued that Vance’s “weird or insulting” characterization of the Democratic Party as “childless cat ladies” also leads to “weird policies,” referencing Vance’s 2021 proposal to bolster the political power of families by giving parents the ability to cast votes on behalf of their children.
Though not on the Sunday shows, Shapiro rallied for Harris in central Pennsylvania on Saturday before hundreds of voters. Ticking through the vice president’s record, Shapiro argued that she was well-positioned to lead the country and defeat Trump, and warned voters of what would happen if Trump returned to the White House.
“Y’all go crack open that Project 2025,” said Shapiro, referencing a 900-page blueprint for a second Trump term put together by former — and likely future — leaders of the Trump administration. “That is chock-full of some crazy ideas, some dangerous ideas, but ideas that he plans to carry forth if he is given the keys to the White House again.”
Beshear, the twice-elected Democratic governor of a deep-red state, delivered a keynote address at the Iowa Democratic Party’s Liberty & Justice Celebration on Saturday night where he sang Harris’s praises before heading to Forsyth County, Ga., on Sunday morning to headline a campaign event for her. Beshear has also repeatedly attacked Vance for trying to profit off Kentuckians with his novel “Hillbilly Elegy” and for misrepresenting Appalachians.
“JD Vance is a phony, a fake,” Beshear said on CNN’s “The Source” last week. “The problem is JD Vance has no conviction, but I guess the problem is his running mate has 34.”
Some options from different demographic backgrounds have been mentioned as potential options to join Harris on the ticket, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Both have shut down claims that voters are not ready for two women on the ticket.
But the conventional political wisdom that has crystallized is that if Harris — the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India — wants to win, she’d be wise to pick a counterweight to broaden her appeal to voters: in other words, a white man from a swing state.
That wisdom has spawned a flood of memes since Harris emerged as the likely Democratic nominee. “Who will the VP be?” a user posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, atop a picture of a “white mystery” Airheads candy. “Kamala’s VP options”: another user posted to describe a picture of an array of white paint samples labeled “Trustworthy Whites: 40 of our best whites.”
If there is one criteria that Democrats have started to coalesce around, it’s that Harris could benefit from picking a candidate from one of the swing states that are likely to decide the election.
Last week, the Arizona Democratic Party endorsed Kelly for vice president, the Philadelphia Democratic Party endorsed Shapiro, and the North Carolina Democratic Party endorsed Cooper. Asked about the trend Sunday, Pritzker conceded that “winning those battleground states is most important” — but not definitive, he added.
“But I think we’ve seen over the last decades that who you pick as your vice president doesn’t determine whether you’re going to win a state or not,” he said. “What it does determine is whether you’ve got the message right across the board.”