Harris campaign casts wider net for VP and looks outside elected office for candidates

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Louise Thomas

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Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly casting a wider net in her search for a running mate, looking to current administration officials, Democratic lawmakers and potentially other high-profile figures who do not currently hold elected office.

It previously appeared that Harris had winnowed her list to just two people. But with a team helping her vet a pool of potential vice presidential picks, that number seems to be growing, with only two weeks left to decide.

Harris is now vetting roughly a dozen candidates, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, according to CBS News.

That list adds to previously reported candidates including Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

That campaign is also looking at people who are not holding office, according to CBS. But, none of those candidates have been named.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has moved quickly to unite members of Congress and a majority of Democratic delegates around her candidacy within days of President Joe Biden ending his re-election campaign and endorsing his vice president.

She recently tapped former attorney general Eric Holder to help vet potential running mates.

A team working with Holder, the nation’s first Black attorney general who served for six years during Barack Obama’s administration, started conversations with potential running mates earlier this week.

Within 24 hours of its launch, her campaign pulled in more than $81 million in donations – marking the biggest single-day raise in presidential history – leaving Biden’s running mate-turned-preferred nominee standing to inherit the president’s massive campaign war chest, which now faces legal threats from Donald Trump’s campaign.

By Monday night, she clinched a majority of Democratic delegates to secure the party’s nomination at next month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Harris’s team is planning to wrap up its vetting process before August 7 to meet an Ohio deadline that requires nominees to be certified by 90 days before Election Day in order to get on the ballot.

The Democratic National Committee will hold its convention on August 19, where Harris is expected to formally receive the party’s nomination.

On Wednesday, Democrats announced a compressed schedule for other candidates to enter the race for the nomination, with a submission window that closes on Saturday night. By July 30, candidates must have secured at least 300 delegate signatures.

Electronic voting by the delegates is expected to begin as soon as August 1.

Delegates are poised to nominate Harris by virtual vote by August 7.