Harris is planning a tour of battleground states next week with her yet-to-be-named running mate.

By Bill Barrow, Steve Peoples and Zeke Miller, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is set to begin a swing state tour next week with her yet-to-be-named running mate, with stops in seven key states stretching from Pennsylvania to Nevada, her campaign said Tuesday.

The planned tour is the latest sign of the breakneck pace at which Harris has transitioned from President Joe Biden’s running mate to a likely Democratic nominee ready to identify her No. 2 and take on Republican Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.

Harris said Tuesday she had not yet made a decision on who she will select.

Those under consideration have been upholding a long-standing tradition: summer auditions in which vice presidential candidates walk the fine line between open self-promotion and loyal defense of the potential boss.

READ MORE: Can Harris reenergize Nevada’s minority voters who have distanced themselves from Trump and Biden?

To that end, Democrat Josh Shapiro told cheering voters in suburban Philadelphia this week that Harris deserves to be in the White House, then reminded them of all she has done as governor of Pennsylvania, a swing state. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear also told Georgia voters that Harris has the makings of a “great president,” then highlighted the elections she won as a Democrat in Republican territory.

According to people familiar with the search process, Harris’ campaign has been evaluating a dozen potential running mates. Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly are considered among the front-runners, according to the people.

The campaign said Harris and her running mate will make stops next week in Philadelphia; western Wisconsin; Detroit; Raleigh, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Meanwhile, Harris’s advisers, led by former Attorney General Eric Holder, have been reviewing reams of documents submitted by potential running mates, while the candidate herself is holding personal conversations with the finalists, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that have not been made public.

According to another person familiar with the matter, Harris is looking for someone with executive experience who can also serve as a partner in government. Ideas of a so-called short list have not prevented the broader members of the Democrats’ national caucus from finding the spotlight.

“I’m not going to talk about the interactions I’ve had with the campaign,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently said on MSNBC. But he added, “Let’s just say I’m aware that the vetting process is pretty exhaustive.” He went on to list his accomplishments, mentioning that he was the only Midwestern governor to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Harris would be the first woman, the first Black woman and the first person of South Asian descent to serve as president. Many Democrats have argued that she should balance their ticket both demographically and politically.

The Democrats’ list of vice presidents has notable differences

Shapiro, 51, is one of the most popular U.S. governors. He won the 2022 election by defeating a Trump-backed Republican. He is an outspoken advocate for abortion rights and has won three statewide elections in Pennsylvania. His speaking style draws comparisons to former President Barack Obama. But he has drawn criticism from the left for his support of Israel’s war on Hamas, a voucher program for private schools and natural gas infrastructure.
Her allies argue that it would help Harris win Pennsylvania, complicating or even blocking Trump’s path to an Electoral College majority.

Like all candidates, Shapiro has sidestepped questions about the selection process and stressed that Harris should not be pressured, but he has mentioned more than once that he has known her for nearly two decades.

Beshear stands out in a heavily Republican state. During his weekend stop in Georgia, he talked about winning votes in “tough counties” but emphasized his liberal bona fides: “I’m a proud governor who supports unions. I’m a proud governor who supports freedom of choice. I’m a proud governor who supports public education. I’m a proud governor who supports diversity.”

Beshear, the Democratic candidate closest in age to JD Vance, openly mocks the Trump surrogate for presenting himself as a son of Appalachia. “I mean, there’s a county that JD Vance claims to be from in Kentucky, and I won it by 22 points last November,” he said.

READ MORE: On first trip to Nevada, Vance says Harris ‘bears responsibility for every failure’ of Biden administration

Beshear and Shapiro were both state attorneys general, as was Harris, before becoming governors. But their tenures did not overlap considerably with Harris’ service in California. She worked more closely with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper during his days as attorney general, but Cooper said Monday that he had opted not to be considered for vice president.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, 60, is a favorite of some progressives. He has an atypical national political resume: He was an Army noncommissioned officer, a public school teacher and a state championship high school football coach before entering politics. Before being elected governor, he was one of the last white Democrats in Congress representing a largely rural, small-town House district — a notable juxtaposition to Harris, the Bay Area Californian.

“She’s going to make the best decision possible,” Walz said Sunday on CNN, a day after Trump held a massive rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota. “One way or another, she’s going to win in November, and that’s going to benefit everybody,” Walz said, including “many of those who were in St. Cloud with the (former) president.”

Kelly, 60, is the only high-ranking candidate in Congress. He has an impressive military resume and experience as an astronaut. He has strong Latino support locally and solid relationships with Arizona officials along the U.S.-Mexico border. That balance could give him credibility on immigration policy as Republicans frame the high number of migrant border crossings as a national crisis.

But Kelly has had to bolster his credentials with labor unions, a key faction of the Democratic Party. He has faced criticism from labor leaders because he was one of the few Democrats not to sponsor the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would make it easier for workers to organize. He said at the time that he supported the goals but had concerns. After pressure this month, he now says he would vote for the bill if it came up for a vote.

Everyone has an opinion

As Harris considers her options, everyone seems to have an opinion.

Steven Benjamin, the White House director of public engagement, laughed as he told reporters on Air Force One on Monday that his office has received thousands of referrals from around the country.

Donna Brazile, who ran Democrat Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000 and was instrumental in urging Biden to pick Harris in 2020, said the selection process involves “a lot of noise” that underestimates the complexity of the decision.

READ MORE: Harris’ long-standing ties to Nevada could benefit her 2024 campaign

“The most important stage is what the lawyers will do to you,” he said, laughing and emphasizing the seriousness of the matter. “It’s worse than a dental hygiene check… Before you get to suitability and other factors, before you get to political people like me, they’ve done a forensic examination of your life.”

Barrow reported from Cumming, Georgia. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington; Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Kentucky; Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix; and Colleen Long aboard Air Force One contributed to this report.