Vice President Kamala Harris holed up at her residence at the Naval Observatory on Monday to finalize the selection of her running mate, perhaps the biggest decision of her nascent campaign, as plans coalesced for the joint campaign swing that Democrats hope will generate excitement for the ticket this week.
Harris met Sunday in Washington with three finalists: Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota. She also met another top contender – Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg – on Friday and spoke with other candidates virtually.
As strategists in both parties awaited the selection — on which an enormous amount of strategy, messaging and advertising will depend — a Harris campaign spokesperson, Kevin Munoz, said just before 4:30 p.m. Monday that the Vice President had not yet made her decision.
After the running mate announcement, Harris and her new election partner plan to launch a whirlwind five-day tour of seven cities in key battleground states this week with a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
The campaign was moving forward with plans for the national campaign trip, set to start in Philadelphia before heading to Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada through Saturday.
Harris’s campaign schedule has been unusually compressed, since President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid on July 21, and Democrats are hoping the five-day tour will help sustain the enthusiasm that has so far accompanied her campaign, enabling her to ride Democrats’ excitement into the party convention beginning Aug. 19.
The campaign announced that Bon Iver, a Grammy Award-winning indie folk band from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, would perform at the second stop in the campaign tour, on Wednesday. Last week, the rapper Megan Thee Stallion performed at Harris’s rally in Atlanta.
A stop later in the week in Savannah, Ga., was postponed because of Hurricane Debby, which made landfall in Florida on Monday morning and is expected to move up the East Coast.
In the meantime, the Harris campaign has been using the highly anticipated announcement to raise money, telling supporters they could be among the first to know the identity of the running mate if they donate at least $20.
Donors have the opportunity to “join an exclusive live stream with the Vice President and her running mate,” as stated in recent emails to supporters, although no specific timing for the live stream was provided.
Other Democratic leaders were awaiting the news, anxious to see which of their colleagues would be catapulted onto the national stage.
“She has a wealth of talent from which to choose,” said North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who added that he personally knows all the governors Harris is considering and that each would be “tremendous.” He also praised Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The most recent poll from CBS shows Harris and Trump in a tight race nationally, with the Democrat holding a one-point lead over her Republican opponent.
The poll released on Sunday shows Trump and Harris tied in battleground states, where the disgraced former president had held a five-point lead while Joe Biden remained in the race.
Harris reportedly met her vetting team – led by former US Attorney General Eric Holder – over the weekend and received in-depth presentations on their findings, including potential political vulnerabilities.
Shapiro has drawn sharp opposition from some left-wing groups for his support of private school vouchers in Pennsylvania – a Republican-backed proposal to send $100 million to families for private school tuition and school supplies – as well as his pro-Israel views.