Joe McConnell
Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce her running mate by Tuesday afternoon, ending two weeks of intense speculation that has gripped the United States as it approaches the November presidential election.
Over the weekend, Ms. Harris interviewed several of the major candidates in Washington, DC, including Governors Josh Shapiro and Tim Walz and Senator Mark Kelly.
Her pick will take her on a frenetic five-day, seven-city tour this week as the vice president ramps up her campaign in key swing states.
The latest poll from CBS, the BBC’s US partner, finds Harris and Trump in a tight race nationally, with Harris leading the former president by one point.
The poll released Sunday shows Trump and Harris tied in swing states, where the former president had a five-point lead while Biden remained in the race.
Ms. Harris reportedly met with her oversight team, led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, over the weekend and received in-depth presentations on their findings, including potential political vulnerabilities.
On Sunday, he met with three of those candidates: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
He also met with another leading candidate, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, on Friday and is believed to have met virtually with other candidates as well, according to U.S. media reports.
Before the decision, Harris’s campaign faced a flurry of lobbying activity for and against the candidates.
For example, Mr. Shapiro has drawn strong opposition from some progressive groups for his support of private school vouchers in Pennsylvania (a Republican-backed proposal to send $100 million to families for college tuition and private school supplies) and for his pro-Israel views.
The announcement is expected to take place before Harris’ campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night.
The Philadelphia event will be followed by a series of campaign events in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona, before concluding with a campaign event in Las Vegas, Nevada, on August 10.
Mr. Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, have both hinted that Ms. Harris’s choice of presidential candidate will have no impact on the next election.
In an episode of the “Full Send” podcast released Friday, Mr. Vance said he believed the vice president’s pick “doesn’t really matter, as much as it hits my ego.”
“People are going to vote mostly for Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. That’s just the way these things go,” he said.
Mr. Trump has similarly largely ignored questions about Mr. Harris’s choice, arguing last week that the vice president role “has no impact.”
On Sunday, however, Trump criticized Shapiro on Fox News, saying that Harris could lose “her small Palestinian base” if she chose him.
Mr. Shapiro, who wrote in a college magazine as a student that the Palestinians were “too prone to fighting,” told reporters on Friday that he now supports a two-state solution.
