At least three Democrats have been named as potential running mates for Kamala Harris, should President Joe Biden drop out of the 2024 presidential election.
The 81-year-old commander-in-chief has insisted he is remaining in the race against Republican Donald Trump – and has hit back against critics from his own party who say he is not mentally equipped to handle a second term in office.
Vice President Harris, 59, has also said she stands by Biden as she travels the country trying to assuage donors and voters about the viability of his campaign.
But that has not stopped a growing number of Democrats from eyeing her for the most powerful position in the United States, with several now working behind the scenes to plan out a potential Harris campaign, according to the New York Times.
They say that in order for Harris to beat Trump in the general election, she would need a moderate white man as her running mate.
The advisors have explained that Harris would be the first black and Asian American female presidential nominee of a major party if Biden were to drop out, and she would need a running mate who looks like nearly all the former presidents to temper any shocks to identity politics.
Among the names being floated are Governors Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, two people close to the Biden-Harris campaign told the Times.
They suggested Cooper, 67, is currently the favorite for the role.
He is a Southern moderate who has worked alongside a Republican-led legislature since he took office in 2016, following a hard-fought race.
Democrats now think North Carolina could be flipped, and having Cooper on the ticket could help ensure a victory for the party.
Beshear, 46, does not offer that same opportunity. But he has attracted party attention after winning a second-term in the deep red state.
Both Cooper and Beshear have also served as their state’s attorneys general, giving them a connection to Harris – who was the California attorney general before becoming a senator.
A third potential candidate is Shapiro, 51, who has good polling numbers.
In fact, a poll in January found that he had a higher approval rating than any other recent Pennsylvania governors, with 59 percent.
That would be important for the general election, as Pennsylvania is a key swing state with 19 electoral votes.
However, Shapiro has only been in office for less than two years, which may be problematic for an unexperienced nominee.
Despite the speculation, Harris has remained quiet about her potential nomination, understanding that she cannot be involved in even private discussions about the matter because it would invariably leak and make her look disloyal to Biden.
Her advisers have also maintained that she is doing nothing to kick off her own campaign as she makes campaign stops across the country vouching for the elderly president.
‘Now we always knew this election would be tough – and the past few days have been a reminder that running for President of the United States is never easy,’ she told a crowd in Las Vegas on Tuesday.
‘But the one thing we know about our President, Joe Biden, is that he is a fighter.’
‘And he is the first to say when you get knocked down you get back up. We all know – many of us know what that is. So we continue to fight and we will continue to organize and in November we will win,’ she added.
Harris is expected to make similar remarks at a keynote address at a sorority event in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday, and will round out the week with a stop in North Carolina.
Yet, a growing number of Democrats have come forward to say she should be the nominee for president rather than Biden – citing his abysmal debate performance.
Throughout the June 27 CNN debate, Biden trailed off in his answers mid-sentence and stood slack-jawed while Trump spoke.
Once it was finished, Biden was also seen standing around his podium before First Lady Jill Biden eventually ushered him off the stage.
The president later blamed ‘exhaustion’ and being ‘sick’ for his performance at the debate – claiming he even had to take a COVID test before the debate.
But questions only increased about Biden’s mental acuity after he conducted feeble damage control efforts, which included a sit-down interview with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos that was described as ‘sad’ and seen as a continuation of his poor debate performance.
Another post-debate appearance led to the firing of a radio host in Philadelphia after it was revealed the president’s team sent her prepared questions that she used during their interview.
Even so, Biden managed to fumble the ball when he gaffed by calling himself a ‘black woman’ when he meant to praise his appointment of Harris as his vice president.
Amid the uncertainty about Biden’s future, Democratic pollster Bendixen & Amandi Inc found the VP would edge out Trump 42 percent to 41.
A Democratic ticket with Harris as the nominee and Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate also fared well, beating Trump by two percentage points, according to Politico.
Those who support Harris as the nominee say she has a better chance than other Democrats of beating former President Trump.
It is expected she would inherit the Biden-Harris campaign, and its $91million cash on hand – which grows to $240million when including the funds from allied Democratic organizations if Biden were to bow out.
And if Biden endorses Harris as his rightful successor, it could limit potential chaos and avoid floor fights at the Democratic National Convention that would be used as fodder by the Trump campaign
Still, many voters think Harris is awkward and unlikeable.
Critics often take to social media to make fun of her uncomfortable laugh and berate her for speeches where she doesn’t make sense.
Polls also show that the southern border and immigration – which Harris was tapped to take care of in the Biden administration – is a top issue to Americans casting their ballots in November, second only to inflation and the general state of the economy.
Others have pointed out that she lacks experience, and the White House has done little to promote Harris or prepare her to run the country.
Some Harris allies are even suspicious that Biden supporters are trying to save his campaign by telling wavering Democrats they cannot abandon him because they would be stuck with a vice president who could not win in November.
Dmitri Mehlhorn, who organizes wealthy Biden boosters like LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman, has even claimed that either a ‘dead’ or ‘comatose’ Biden would be better than replacing him on the ticket with Kamala Harris.
He said in an interview Monday that Biden is still determined to run and win in 2024, that the polls saying the president is losing are wrong and what motivates him to stay in the race.
Biden, according to Mehlhorn, believes that his biggest mistake was being convinced not to run for president in 2016 so that Hillary Clinton could be the Democrat Party nominee. Many reports suggest Barack Obama was one of them.
‘And he’s right. We were all wrong,’ Mehlhorn said.
‘If he’d run in 2016, we would not be here. A lot of people – not as much this time – but a lot of people made those same arguments to him in 2020 and he stubbornly, stubbornly resisted all of them. And he saved us.’