There has not been anything weird about Kamala Harris’ rollout of her campaign for the presidency. She’s moved swiftly to consolidate control over the delegates to the Democratic convention in Chicago, which will serve as a coronation if the elation surrounding her among Democrats is anything to go by. She’s also attacking Donald Trump head-on over immigration, claiming that he’s the one who has stymied real progress in choking off further influxes from Central and South America. A new poll from Bloomberg/Morning Consult suggest she has eliminated Trump’s polling lead in seven battleground states. Now she is taking a leaf from the Trump playbook in delaying the announcement of her pick for vice-president until next Tuesday. The longer she waits, the more she heightens the drama as various candidates ranging from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro try to catch her eye with public performances.
Will Harris be Walzing to victory? He’s come on strong with his disarming folksy manner. Rather than accept the framing of the media or the GOP about him being too left-wing, he mocks the notion from the outset. “What a monster,” he declared after CNN’s Jake Tapper queried him about his support for free school breakfasts and lunches. The 60-year-old Walz is a former social studies teacher with a long record of military service who has regularly won re-election in rural districts as a Congressman. His experience as both a legislator and a Governor may offer some extra appeal for Harris who will need a loyal lieutenant who can dicker with Congress successfully. Republicans will pummel Walz over his support for abortion rights and for failing to send in the National Guard into the Twin Cities immediately after rioting erupted in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. But the biggest reservation that Harris will have in tapping Walz is the most obvious one—he doesn’t come from a swing state.
Josh Shapiro does. The 51-year-old, whose speaking cadence sounds uncannily similar to Barack Obama’s, would accentuate the age contrast with Trump, Shapiro enjoys a 61 percent favorability rating in Pennsylvania. He is also a centrist who tends to attract the ire of the progressive left for denouncing American protesters of Israel’s war in the Gaza strip. He has also lowered corporate tax rates. The question-mark hovering over Shapiro is whether he would suppress the enthusiastic wave of enthusiasm that Harris is currently experiencing among progressives who might seem him as too pro-Israel and too pro-business. But if you believe that Harris needs to run to the center and to lock down the state’s 19 electoral to buttress the Democratic blue wall—and many Democratic pundits do—then Shapiro is your guy. Harris is slated to make her announcement on Tuesday in Philadelphia, which might suggest that Shapiro occupies the pole position.
Then there is Arizona senator Mark Kelly who would send what the Wall Street Journal is calling a tough on the border signal. The former Navy combat pilot, astronaut and border-state senator would bring a lot of heft to the ticket and isn’t mired in controversies over Israel and the Gaza strip. Kelly isn’t known as an attack dog, but given the ferocity of Harris’ own speeches, maybe she doesn’t really need one. As her speech in Atlanta on Monday indicated, she has no inhibitions about taunting Trump.
For now, Harris’ own version of the Apprentice show will continue as she ponders whom to choose. As Harris demonstrates her media savvy, it can’t be a comfortable feeling for Trump who had become habituated to framing the 2024 race. No longer.
Jacob Heilbrunn is editor of The National Interest and is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. He has written on both foreign and domestic issues for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Reuters, Washington Monthly, and The Weekly Standard. He has also written for German publications such as Cicero, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and Der Tagesspiegel. In 2008, his book They Knew They Were Right: the Rise of the Neocons was published by Doubleday. It was named one of the one hundred notable books of the year by The New York Times. He is the author of America Last: The Right’s Century-Long Romance with Foreign Dictators.
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