Joe Biden’s decision to stop running for office on Sunday opened the race to complete the ballot before the Democratic National Convention, which will be held in Chicago from August 19 to 22. Just 32 hours after the historic announcement, Kamala Harris had already secured enough support to be nominated as her party’s candidate. The first to give her his backing was also the most important: the president did so immediately after announcing that he was throwing in the towel due to doubts about his abilities that arose after the disastrous debate that pitted him against the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, on June 27.
The big question now that the mystery of who Trump’s rival will be seems to have been resolved is who the vice president will join on the November ballot.
The field of candidates is reduced to a few names, which are more or less the same ones that came to light when the voices calling for Biden to step aside began to be heard. They are mostly white men, because of the idea that to accompany the first African-American and Asian-American woman who is running for the White House, a counterweight like that could help her at the polls. Although there is also the option of the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer. If she is finally chosen, both would make history together: never have two women opted to take the reins of the world’s leading power. All of them have shown their support for Harris’ candidacy.
Here is a review of those possible names, whose background is already being examined by the campaign lawyers, in order to avoid scares in the immediate future:
Roy Cooper, Governor of North Carolina
He can boast of having won the elections for governor of North Carolina in 2016 and 2020, two elections in which former President Trump carried the state. This time, the Democrats are hoping to flip a territory where they have not been victorious since 2008, when Barack Obama was the candidate. To find another Democratic victory, you have to go back to 1976, when the United States elected Jimmy Carter as president.
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The party’s hopes rest on the rapidly growing suburban areas around Charlotte and Raleigh; those pockets of population are the ones that tend to turn their backs on the GOP. Harris has visited the state at least half a dozen times so far this year alone. And Cooper, like Harris, has a history as attorney general and the two are friends.
Josh Shapiro, Governor of Pennsylvania
He is one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party, and Pennsylvania is one of the decisive states, one of those that American election observers cite in quick succession (Michigan, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin…) when they want to explain that the contest will be decided by a handful of votes.
Josh Shapiro, who has endorsed Harris, is halfway through his first term as governor. He won the post in a 2022 election by defeating Doug Mastriano, a Republican rival promoted by Trump. He has a moderate profile, and that has made him attractive to voters, congressmen and senators of the rival party in Pennsylvania.
Working against him, if you ask environmentalists, is his support for the shale gas industry, which is vital to the state’s economy. Democrats in the progressive faction also criticize his support for Israel. Shapiro, a practicing Jew, has condemned what he sees as rising anti-Semitism on college campuses during the wave of protests in solidarity with Gaza. According to an April poll, he has 54 percent support in the state, including 29 percent of registered Republicans.
Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky
Another Democratic politician capable of surviving in a deeply Republican state. That has made him a hope in the Democratic Party. Kentucky voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016 and 2020, but Beshear — a member of a political dynasty; he is the son of Steve Beshear, who was governor, congressman and attorney general of Kentucky — won the trust of his fellow citizens in 2019 and, again, in 2023.
Beshear on Sunday praised Biden’s decision in a statement, saying he would support him if he decided to continue running, and has expressed his support for the vice president’s candidacy. “It’s not easy, but it’s what’s best for our country and our party. I want to thank him for his leadership, kindness, and for a successful presidency that accomplished great and important things. Now is the time for our nation to come together. We need to reduce the anger, the rancor, and the noise.”
Gretchen Whitmer, Governor of Michigan
In the November 2022 election, Gretchen Whitmer faced Tudor Dixon, a candidate from the center of Trump’s MAGA universe, and won the election, which she was running for the second time, by a landslide. She also led the party for the first time in decades to sign what is known in American political jargon as a trifectathat is, to win the governor’s office and the majority in both the Senate and Congress.
Michigan is another swing state, and Whitmer rose to national prominence when she shut down the state’s economy during the pandemic, in open defiance of the Trump administration. That led to a far-right militia group plotting to kidnap her in 2020. The FBI discovered it and was able to stop it.
A progressive, she has passed laws on gun control and in favor of clean energy. She has also pushed through popular tax cuts. Whitmer, who has expressed excitement about Harris’ candidacy, has already hinted at her ambitions for the White House, but not for now, but rather with an eye toward 2028.
Mark Kelly, Senator from Arizona
Again, the key is both the who and the where. Arizona is another swing state, and it was key in Biden’s election as president in 2020, when Kelly won his Senate seat in Washington. He has the advantage, according to the polls, that his performance in Arizona is better than the polls gave Biden in that territory. This former astronaut may also be helped by his marriage to Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman shot in extreme seriousness in the Tucson massacre on January 8, 2011.
J.B. Pritzker, governor of Illinois
He is one of the most vocal progressive voices in the party, especially on the issue of women’s reproductive rights, one of the Democrats’ main issues for the elections, which have yielded such good results in past elections, following the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down federal protection of the right to abortion. His fortune also plays in his favor. He is the heir to the Hyatt hotel chain, and that could help finance the presidential campaign.
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