At least three Democrats have been named as potential running mates for Kamala Harris if President Joe Biden withdraws from the 2024 presidential election.
The 81-year-old commander in chief has insisted he is still in the race against Republican Donald Trump and has hit back at critics in his own party who say he is not mentally prepared to handle a second term in office.
Vice President Harris, 59, has also said she supports Biden as she travels the country trying to reassure donors and voters about the viability of his campaign.
But that hasn’t stopped a growing number of Democrats from eyeing her for America’s most powerful job, with several of them now working behind the scenes to plan a potential Harris campaign. according to the New York Times.
They say that for Harris to defeat Trump in the general election, she would need a moderate white man as her running mate.
A growing number of Democrats are arguing that Vice President Kamala Harris should take over as their party’s nominee for president.
Advisers have explained that Harris would be the first Black and Asian-American presidential nominee from a major party if Biden were to drop out, and would need a running mate who resembled nearly all former presidents to temper any impact on identity politics.
Among the names being considered are Govs. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, two people close to the Biden-Harris campaign told The Times.
They suggested Cooper, 67, is currently the favourite for the role.
He is a Southern moderate who has worked alongside a Republican-led legislature since taking office in 2016 after a tough battle.
Democrats now believe North Carolina could win the battle, and having Cooper on the ticket could help secure a victory for the party.
Beshear, 46, doesn’t offer that same opportunity, but he has attracted the party’s attention after winning a second term in the deeply Republican state.
Both Cooper and Beshear have also served as attorneys general of their states, giving them a connection to Harris, who was California attorney general before becoming a senator.
One of the favorites to be Harris’ running mate is North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, 67.
A third potential candidate is Shapiro, 51, who has strong poll numbers.
In fact, a poll in January found he had a higher approval rating than any other recent Pennsylvania governor, at 59 percent.
That would be important for the general election, since Pennsylvania is a key state with 19 electoral votes.
However, Shapiro has only been in office for less than two years, which could be problematic for an inexperienced candidate.
Other names being floated as possible vice presidential candidates for Harris include Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, 46, left, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, right.
Despite the speculation, Harris has remained silent on her potential nomination, understanding that she cannot engage in even private discussions on the matter because it would invariably leak and make her appear disloyal to Biden.
Her advisers have also maintained that she is doing nothing to kick-start her own campaign as she makes campaign stops across the country backing the elderly president.
“We always knew this election would be tough, and the last few days have been a reminder that running for president of the United States is never easy,” he told a crowd in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
“But the one thing we know about our president, Joe Biden, is that he is a fighter.”
“And he’s the first one to say that when you get knocked down, you get back up. We all know, a lot of us know what that means. So we’re going to keep fighting and we’re going to keep organizing and in November we’re going to win,” she added.
Harris is expected to make similar comments in a keynote speech at a sisterhood event in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday, and will round out the week with a stop in North Carolina.
Harris has so far endorsed President Joe Biden, 81, and has traveled across the country to reassure voters and donors about his ability to win the general election against former President Donald Trump in November.
However, a growing number of Democrats have said she should be the presidential nominee instead of Biden, citing her dismal debate performance.
Throughout the June 27 debate on CNN, Biden was left speechless in his mid-sentence responses and gaped as Trump spoke.
Once finished, Biden was also seen standing around his podium before First Lady Jill Biden eventually escorted him off the stage.
The president later blamed “exhaustion” and being “sick” for his debate performance, even claiming that he had to take a COVID test before the debate.
But questions about Biden’s mental acuity only grew after he engaged in feeble damage control efforts, including an interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos that was described as “sad” and seen as a continuation of his poor debate performance.
Another post-debate appearance led to the firing of a radio host in Philadelphia after it was revealed that the president’s team sent her prepared questions that she used during the interview.
Still, Biden managed to slip up when he made a mistake by calling himself a “black woman” when he wanted to praise his appointment of Harris as his vice president.
During the June 27 debate on CNN, Biden was left speechless in his mid-sentence responses and gaped as Trump spoke.
Amid uncertainty over Biden’s future, Democratic pollster Bendixen and Amandi Inc found that the vice president would beat Trump 42 percent to 41 percent.
The Democratic ticket with Harris as the candidate and Governor Josh Shapiro as her running mate also did well, beating Trump by two percentage points. according to Politico.
Harris’s supporters say she has a better chance than other Democrats of beating former President Trump.
She is expected to inherit the Biden-Harris campaign and its $91 million in cash on hand, which rises to $240 million if funding from allied Democratic organizations is included if Biden drops out.
And if Biden endorses Harris as his rightful successor, it could limit potential chaos and avoid fights on the floor of the Democratic National Convention that would be used as fodder by the Trump campaign.
Still, many voters find Harris odd and unsympathetic.
Recent polls show Harris would beat Trump in the general election
Critics often take to social media to mock her awkward laugh and chide her for speeches in which she makes no sense.
Polls also show the southern border and immigration — which Harris was tapped to address in the Biden administration — are top issues for Americans casting ballots in November, second only to inflation and the overall state of the economy.
Others have pointed out that she lacks experience and that the White House has done little to promote Harris or prepare her to lead the country.
Some Harris allies even suspect Biden supporters are trying to save his campaign by telling undecided Democrats they can’t abandon him because they would be left with a vice president who couldn’t win in November.
Dmitri Mehlhorn, who organizes wealthy Biden supporters like LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman, has even claimed that a “dead” or “comatose” Biden would be better than replacing him on the ticket with Kamala Harris.
He said in an interview Monday that Biden is still determined to run and win in 2024, that polls saying the president is losing are wrong and what motivates him to stay in the race.
According to Mehlhorn, Biden believes his biggest mistake was being talked out of running for president in 2016 so that Hillary Clinton could be the Democratic Party’s nominee. Many reports suggest Barack Obama was one of them.
“And he’s right. We were all wrong,” Mehlhorn said.
“If he had run in 2016, we wouldn’t be here. A lot of people, not so much this time, but a lot of people made those same arguments to him in 2020 and he stubbornly resisted all of them. And he saved us.”