Vice President Kamala Harris is nearing the end of her search for a running mate. However, a report reveals that Democrats are still divided on who should join her on the party ticket.
On Sunday, Harris interviewed the final three contenders: Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-Pa.), though she reportedly met with other potential candidates as well.
Harris met with her vetting team on Saturday, including former attorney general Eric Holder, whose law firm Covington & Burling LLP scrutinized the finances and background of potential running mates. Holder and his office made in-depth presentations on each of the finalists, according to sources familiar with the process.
She met Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for 90 minutes on Friday and is also meeting candidates virtually, the sources said. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker are the other candidates in contention for the job.
The candidates will be informed on Monday night or Tuesday morning whether they were picked, the sources said.
According to a report from the New York Times, the Harris veepstakes "reached something of an ugly phase in recent days as donors, interest groups and political rivals from the party’s moderate and progressive wings lobbied for their preferred candidates and passed around memos debating the contenders’ political weaknesses with key demographics."
Related: Democrat Civil War Watch: Fetterman Warns Kamala About Picking Josh Shapiro
And Shapiro, widely considered the favorite, is causing the most division.
They turned most sharply on one of the favorites to join the ticket, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who has drawn opposition from progressives and even a senator in his home state.
The fissures among Democrats emerged as three leading contenders — Mr. Shapiro, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota — met with Ms. Harris at her residence in Washington on Sunday, ahead of a decision her campaign said would be announced by Tuesday.
Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, declined to comment on the meetings.
Ms. Harris is set to hit the campaign trail with her running mate this week, kicking off a five-day, seven-state tour with a rally on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, where Mr. Shapiro is expected to be in attendance, whether he is her pick or not.
Progressive groups have trained their criticisms on Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Kelly, who they accuse of being too conservative on key issues. Shawn Fain, the president of the United Automobile Workers union, said during a Sunday interview on CBS that Mr. Kelly had “not really” assuaged the union’s concerns about his commitment to pro-labor legislation and that the organization had “bigger issues” with Mr. Shapiro’s support for school vouchers.
The Democracy Alliance, a left-wing donor group, has voiced "concerns" about Shapiro, while another group, Gamechanger Salon, opposes him for his stance on Israel’s war with Hamas.
Another group of progressive activists, communicating through an email group called Gamechanger Salon, have come out against Mr. Shapiro and pushed its members to highlight his stances on Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The debate grew heated during a discussion about whether using the phrase “Genocide Josh” to describe Mr. Shapiro, who is an observant Jew, was antisemitic. An organizer called for calm and rebranded the email chain as “Why Josh Shapiro should not be the VP.” Some of the emails also called for members to push for Mr. Walz, who has become a favorite of the party’s most liberal contributors, about 60 of whom he addressed on Friday.
Other donors are pushing for different candidates besides Shapiro or Kelly.
One message, written by Billy Wimsatt, an executive director of a liberal donor group known as the Movement Voter Project, said that Mr. Shapiro could cause a drop in turnout among progressive voters who are concerned about the war in Gaza. “He risks significantly depressing enthusiasm for the Harris ticket among key constituencies of young voters, Arab and Muslim voters, and to some degree labor,” he wrote in an email thread, which was shared with The New York Times. “Tim Walz is the perfect Harris VP unicorn for this moment.”
According to the New York Times, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.), who is popular with both liberal and centrist donors, might emerge as a compromise candidate. Over the past two weeks, he has been auditioning before various groups of major donors. However, Beshear "was not known to have participated in Ms. Harris’s final interviews on Sunday."
Join the conversation as a VIP Member