This coming week, presidential candidate Kamala Harris is expected to make her choice for Vice President. I’ve previously posted who I felt might be in the running: Buttigieg, Beshear, Shapiro, Whitmer, Newsom, and Moore. Two who seem to be on the short list that weren’t on my radar are Tim Walz of Minnesota and Mark Kelly of Arizona.
Tim Walz is the current governor of Minnesota. His bona fides include serving in the Army National Guard, and as a former U.S. Representative. Walz seems to be a down-to-earth kind of guy, one who speaks from the hip. Prior to his being placed as a VP contender I’d never really heard of him, meaning to me, he has a name recognition issue. I will say his “attempt” at shooting a public service video with his daughter about a new hands-free law in Minnesota was pretty endearing.
Mark Kelly is a current sitting Senator for Arizona. He is also a real-life astronaut. He too is former military reaching a rank of Captain in the Navy serving in the Gulf War. To me, although I had heard of him prior to being considered as VP through his marriage to Gabby Giffords—a former U.S. Representative who survived an assassination attempt at a 2011 political rally in Tucson—he still is much less known than some of the other potential running mates.
Vice President Harris has come out bold and swinging as the presumptive, now formally chosen, Democratic candidate for president. Her ads have been great, her tweets have been in many ways cutthroat as has her press releases and comments at packed rally’s. No one can argue she is able to raise money ($310M since she became the nominee, breaking all previous records for any candidate) and created grassroots energy—starting with a Zoom call with 90,000 Black women attending, to White Dudes for Harris, to even Haley Voters for Harris—all of which raised large sums for Harris’ campaign.
She has momentum. She has the Trumplican candidate and campaign in a tizzy and chaos. She has big donor backing. She has small donor backing. She’s getting pretty good press. She’s helped label the other side as just “weird.” Momentum in controlling the narrative is a good thing for a candidate.
Now, how does she keep that going? One obvious way is the upcoming Democratic National Convention. Candidates often get a nice boost afterwards. With the Convention being so late in the season this year, that is a plus as the convention boost could last well into September.
Another more pressing way is her choice of her running mate. There is definitely a deep well of highly qualified candidates out there. If you are paying attention, you will see who the Establishment seems to want to choose for “us.” The Establishment is pushing three straight white guys from need-to-win states: Walz, Shapiro, and Kelly. Walz is more the wild card because as mentioned above, he is a bit of an unknown on the national scene. Most of us have heard of Shapiro and Kelly.
There was really good buzz about Whitmer and Beshear, but Whitmer has emphatically stated she wants to finish her term as governor and Beshear is at the luke warm stage.
Mitch Landrieu, former Governor of Louisiana has been on the radar for some of the Establishment, but just floating above the radar without any real traction. His main qualification, other than being popular in Louisiana seems to be one of being an excellent communicator. Some Establishment members believes he would be able to get needed messaging to the masses in a way they will understand. Landrieu is another person I know very little about, but had at least heard his name before.
All of these potentials would be on the safe side. They bring some excellent qualities and proven track records. And again, they might bring along their respective states and assist in down ballot Democrats. All of them would also be very palatable to the Establishment.
Now for the Bold (and the unexpected).
Gretchen Whitmer would have been the boldest of choice. Two women on the ticket at the same time! Two women representing many parts of our society: Black, white, Asian-Indian, married with birth children, married with step-children, divorced and remarried, married, liberal leaning, middle leaning, Mid-west, West Coast, both have legal backgrounds, both have been elected to multiple offices, and both are pretty bold. I’m very sorry Whitmer has stated she won’t leave her current role to be VP.
The second boldest choice, and if you’ve been paying attention, he is who the people want, and may be a little bit of a surprise: Pete Buttigieg. In my humble opinion, as much as I like Whitmer, Buttigieg is the best unexpected candidate and one getting the most buzz from us regular people. He is white. He is married. He is a father. He is a Christian. He has held elected office. He has served well as U.S. Secretary of Transportation. He is former Naval officer serving in the War in Afghanistan. He has shown he can win a primary and he campaigns well. He has shown he is country over party in dropping out in 2020 to support then candidate Biden. He speaks multiple languages including Spanish.He has shown he is not afraid to go on Fox “News.” He is extremely articulate and able to be concise with language, getting his point across without sounding condescending. He now lives in Michigan, a must-win state, and is seen favorably in Indiana. He is a millennial (a nice complement to Harris, a boomer and cusp GenX’r).
Even as qualified as Buttigieg may be, he is openly and proudly, a gay man. Would the country vote for both a Black/Asian woman and a gay man to lead the country? Talk about bold and ballsy. Who would truly suspect such a bold stance? Who would actually believe this choice would be made in light of the rampant racism, misgony, and homophobia in our society at this moment in time?
But, I think this is the choice that should be made. It would definitely shake things up at lot, especially among the Establishment and the Elite. Don’t you think though it is high time to shake things up a bit? I mean Harris/Buttigieg would appeal to women, People of Color, GenX, millennials, boomers, Gen Z, the working class, LGBTQ, veterans, and those of us who are tired of the same ol’ same ol’ white heterosexual old men making antiquated choices on how we live our lives in the 21st Century.
I’m trying not to read too much into where Harris has chosen to announce her running mate, Philadelphia. My hope is she is going to announce her running mate at The National Constitution Center, in front of the Liberty Bell, or in Independence Hall. These would all be appropriate places to announce as a show of her continued belief in the Constitution as opposed to the other side’s candidate. What a backdrop any of these would be to announce the ticket of Harris/Buttigieg, an historic announcement in one of our most historic cities at one of our most historic places to our country.
Now that would be bold, wouldn’t it?!
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 