WASHINGTON – Democrats rallied with remarkable speed behind the vice president Kamala Harris since she took control party ticket top going to the November presidential elections.
It may be a different story when it comes to a running mate.
As Governor of Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Marco Kelly emerged as among the potential finalists, both faced criticism from some organizations and activists who might otherwise support democratic causes.
Harris’ team says she is interviewing six possible choices over the weekend ahead of an expected announcement on Monday. The next day, she and her running mate will appear together at a rally in Philadelphia, then visit six more swing states.
In addition to Shapiro and Kelly, Harris is reportedly considering the position of governor of Minnesota. Tim WalzGovernor of Illinois. JB Pritzker and governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg
Some congressional Democrats have promoted Kelly, a former Navy pilot and astronaut whose state borders more than 370 miles with Mexico. They say his choice could help neutralize attacks from the Republican candidate, former president donald trumpwhich argues that the Biden administration’s immigration policies are too relaxed.
Shapiro also has prominent supporters, including Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker. She caused controversy by posting a video on Friday depicting several Philadelphia-area officials and Democrats promoting Harris but also featuring Shapiro as her running mate — appearing to suggest the mayor had inside knowledge about Harris’ decision.
But a person with knowledge of the mayor’s thinking said the video was simply a case of Parker showing support for Harris and the potential for Parker’s friend Shapiro to be the vice presidential pick. The person was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Both Kelly and Shapiro also saw their detractors become more vocal as Harris moved closer to a decision.
While this may not sway Harris, it is an indication that the vice president’s honeymoon period, where the disparate wings of the Democratic Party have rallied behind her, may be ending less than two weeks since President Joe Biden abandoned his candidacy for re-election. and endorsed it.
Some labor groups criticized Kelly for opposing proposed legislation that they said would boost union organizing. Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, said that despite supporting Harris for president, his 370,000-member union does not support Kelly as a potential running mate.
Fain also said the union does not favor Shapiro, who has previously expressed a willingness to join Republicans in calls to expand voucher programs that allow public tax dollars to flow to private schools.
Fain singled out Beshear, Walz and Pritzker for praise.
“She probably has thousands of people telling her the same thing, you know, about what they think,” Fain said in an interview. “And then she has to make the decision based on what she thinks is best for her.”
The nonprofit Institute for Middle East Understanding said in a statement that Shapiro “is not the right candidate for the position and selecting him would be a step in the wrong direction.”
Shapiro, who says he plans to be at Harris’ rally Tuesday in Philadelphia, has aggressively confronted what he sees as anti-Semitism emerging from the pro-Palestinian demonstrations and has professed solidarity with Israel in its effort to eliminate Hamas as Israel battles the militants in Gaza.
Shapiro criticized universities for not acting quickly to combat anti-Semitism and became a prominent critic of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill. She resigned after testifying at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say, under repeated questioning, that campus calls for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.
Shapiro also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while suggesting that any end to the Israel-Hamas war requires the removal of Hamas from power.
The governor has been criticized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations for not condemning Israel for the killing of civilians in Gaza or for not calling on Israel to stop fighting in the territory. Shapiro responded that he has met with American Muslims and understands their pain.
The progressive activist organization RootsAction.org opposes Shapiro’s views on Israel, school vouchers and the environment, among other issues. It says that by considering Shapiro, Harris “triggered alarm among young people, racial justice organizers, Arab Americans, Muslims and others whose votes and campaign activism were crucial to defeating Trump four years ago.”
Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Inquirer resurfaced an op-ed that Shapiro wrote in 1993, when he was a 20-year-old college student at the University of Rochester, where he said that peace will “never come” to the Middle East and that the Palestinians were “very obstinate” coexist with Israel.
Asked about this, Shapiro responded, “I was 20 years old,” adding that he has long supported a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“I hope we can see a day when peace reigns in the Middle East,” he said.
Also opposing Shapiro are some environmental leaders and residents of the rural town of Dimock, Pennsylvania. They drafted a letter to Harris urging her not to choose Shapiro and accusing the governor of failing to fulfill his promises to clean up underground areas contaminated by natural gas production through hydraulic fracturing.
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Associated Press writer Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and AP Auto writer Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.
