Democrats want Harris to pick battleground VP (and preferably a man)

A new CBS/YouGov poll from Sunday shows that most Democrats want a liberal candidate for vice president who comes from a battleground state.

Kamala Harris is on the brink of announcing her pick for running mate. She has already said that her veep pick will appear alongside her at a rally on Tuesday.

The latest data shows that nearly four in 10 Democrats (38 per cent) think Harris should choose a man to be her VP, as opposed to a woman (22 per cent).

Luckily for those four in 10, Harris is very likely to have a male running mate, as the three top contenders are currently Josh Shapiro, Mark Kelly and Andy Beshear – though it is still possible that Harris will choose someone who she has vetted outside of the public eye.

This may be the choice needed to win over a key part of the electorate, says our DC correspondent Eric Garcia: white, working-class men.

Some 41 per cent of Democrats think Harris should make a strategic move by picking her running mate from a battleground state.

The time is as ripe as ever to curry favor with swing state voters, as the same CBS/YouGov poll shows that Harris leads over Donald Trump by just 1 point nationally, while the two presidential candidates are at a stalemate in battleground states.

In individual battleground states, Harris leads by a fraction in Nevada, while Trump leads in Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina, though all are by a margin too close to call for November.

Most of the rumoured VP shortlist candidates are from key swing states, except Governor Andy Beshear from Kentucky. Kentucky has been firmly red for the entirety of the 21st century.

The next Democratic VP candidate could be from Arizona or Pennsylvania; but notably, Governor Gretchen Whitmer (who was floated as a possible presidential candidate) has already pulled out of the running, despite her home state of Michigan being a key target for the Democrats.

The gender of Harris’s VP pick is in some ways consequential, due to the record of exclusion of women from high-level positions in office.

This is only the second time a woman has won a major-party nomination to be presidential candidate, the first being Hilary Clinton in 2016. No woman has been elected president of the United States as of yet.

But perhaps surprisingly, Harris was only the third woman in history to be a vice presidential pick, the second being Sarah Palin in 2008, and the first Geraldine Ferraro in 1984.

There has never been a major-party ticket with a female presidential and VP nominee; that is unlikely to change this year.

With a female candidate leading the presidential ticket, the Democrats’ focus will be on engaging other key groups of voters needed to gain a lead over Trump, as Harris already holds a small advantage (+9 points) with female voters over her Republican rival (54 to 45 per cent).