Harris said to be planning to announce vice-president pick by Aug 7
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Vice-President Kamala Harris is said to be considering as many as 12 candidates as her running mate.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – Vice-President Kamala Harris is making plans to announce a running mate by Aug 7, and her aides are conducting a first round of interviews with people in consideration by video calls given the tight timeline, according to four persons briefed on the plans.
If she meets the Aug 7 deadline, Ms Harris will have squeezed a process of vetting, choosing and introducing a running mate, which typically takes months, into just over three weeks.
The Harris campaign began the vetting process on July 23 and aims to make its selection quickly in order to eliminate legal risk related to securing ballot access in Ohio, according to three of the four people briefed on the plans, as well as another person.
Ohio law mandates that the major political parties certify the names of their candidates for president and vice-president by Aug 7.
In May, Ohio lawmakers pushed the state’s ballot access deadline to Sept 1, but some Democrats said they do not trust that Republicans will not mount legal challenges if the party submits a ticket after Aug 7.
Delegates to the Democratic National Convention will begin voting on Ms Harris’ nomination for president on Aug 1, provided that no one else qualifies to challenge her, the convention’s rules committee decided this week.
The party’s rules do not require a similar roll-call vote for a vice-presidential nominee. That choice can be certified by the chair of the convention, Ms Minyon Moore, a long-time Democratic Party official who is Ms Harris’ ally.
Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, is one of many candidates the Harris campaign is vetting to be its candidate for vice-president.
PHOTO: AFP
“Vice-President Harris has directed her team to begin the process of vetting potential running mates,” said Mr Kevin Munoz, a Harris campaign spokesman. “That process has begun in earnest, and we do not expect to have additional updates until (she) announces who will be serving as her running mate.”
Some of the video interviews have already taken place with Harris aides, though she is not known to have participated in any yet.
She is said to be considering as many as 12 candidates, though those in more serious consideration include Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Andy Beshear of Kentucky.
Admiral William McRaven, former commander of the US Special Operations Command, publicly took himself out of consideration on July 24.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan said this week that she was “not going anywhere”
Ms Harris, who went through an extensive vetting process when President Joe Biden chose her to join his ticket four years ago, is aiming to find someone who shares her political values, is ready to be president and can be a governing partner, according to a campaign official.
She tapped Mr Eric Holder, a former attorney-general who led the vice-presidential vetting process for Mr Barack Obama in 2008, to oversee the process for her through his law firm, Covington & Burling. NYTIMES
