Picking a running mate: Inside the 16 days between Kamala Harris’ launch and her choice of Tim Walz
Associated Press▶ Follow AP’s live coverage of the 2024 election WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris’ whirlwind process to select Minnesota Gov. Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Holder and a team of researchers and political veterans ultimately formally vetted nine choices -– perhaps a shorter roster than it would normally be for a monthslong process but still long enough to require phases and whittling before Harris got to the proverbial “short list.” The public narrative asserted from the start that Harris, a biracial woman of Indian and Jamaican heritage who made history becoming vice president and would do so again if elected president, needed to balance the ticket demographically. A former state attorney general like Harris, Shapiro made sure to mention publicly that he’d known the vice president for nearly two decades. The following day, Wednesday, the United Auto Workers formally endorsed Harris’ presidential bid, and the group’s president, Shawn Fain, told the vice president’s vetting team that organized labor was most excited about Beshear and Walz -– and would not be enthusiastic about Shapiro or Kelly.