On Sunday, CNN’s Jamie Gangel reported that Vice President Kamala Harris’ team was vetting four Democrats to be her running mate: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper Arizona Sen.
Mark Kelly Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro In addition to this reporting, USA Today wrote on Tuesday that vetting materials had been requested from Cooper, Kelly, and Shapiro as well as Illinois Gov. J.
B. Pritzker, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Minnesota Gov.
Tim Walz, and former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond. (They left Beshear off the list.
) But for many reasons, these other candidates don’t seem like serious options: Pritzker reportedly wasn’t contacted , Whitmer just took a role co-chairing the Harris campaign and says she’s not interested in being VP , and Walz and Richmond are relative no-names. So let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the four candidates on the bulleted list above, and then I’ll venture my own opinion on whom I’d like to see. First, let’s discuss why the vice presidential nominee is so important.
In short, they have two primary roles: Providing base service, such as appealing to core demographic groups in a way that the presidential nominee cannot. Filling a gap in the presidential nominee’s resume. Dick Cheney, the vice president to George W.
Bush, was a perfect example of someone picked for base service. He played the attack dog in front of conservative audiences, while Bush pretended to be a jovial frat boy to mainstream audie.