WASHINGTON — The crowds are psyched. The campaign donations are flooding in. Volunteers are showing up at field offices in droves.
After a mostly smooth two-week campaign startup, Vice President Kamala Harris is headed into a crucial week that includes her most critical decision yet — choosing a running mate — while grappling with how to keep that early political momentum alive.
Harris, a former prosecutor known for being deliberative, effectively has a deadline of Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024, to select who will be her No. 2 from a list that has been whittled down to four governors, a senator, and a Cabinet official who was also one of her 2020 foes.
It’s a high-pressure decision that usually spans several months, but in this case, it is compressed into a matter of just weeks.
From there, Harris and her running mate will launch into an aggressive, seven-state battleground tour that begins in Philadelphia on Tuesday and winds through Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. Her early rallies have attracted enthusiastic thousands.
Campaign officials are aware that momentum can be fleeting and are working to capitalize on the energy now, while managing expectations by continuing to emphasize the race with Republican nominee Donald Trump is tight. But the strong rollout has allowed the Harris campaign to put a number of states back in play that had been feared out of reach when President Joe Biden remained at the top of the ticket.
Harris faces new tests in the coming days as she works though key decisions — including her vice presidential pick, with the potential to disappoint elements of the coalition.
She has not faced the level of scrutiny that presidential candidates typically face. While she has kept up a busy schedule of public appearances, she has rarely taken questions from the press and has not sat for an in-depth interview. After four years of advocating for Biden’s positions, she’ll have to stake out positions of her own on the political controversies that divide Democrats.
Harris’ message is coming into clearer focus with each day.
Her first television ad last week portrayed her as “fearless” and emphasized what has emerged as a rallying cry for her campaign: “We are not going back.”
Harris herself is remaining quiet in Washington this weekend, with interviews underway for about a half-dozen potential running mates who have effectively been auditioning publicly through media interviews. The contenders on her interview list, all white men, are Governors Andy Beshear of Kentucky, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota, as well as Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, according to people with knowledge of Harris’ selection process.
Harris has revealed little about her deliberations, but she will undoubtedly lean on her own experience of being vetted and eventually chosen as Biden’s running mate four years ago. / AP