Vice President Kamala Harris and her vice presidential candidate will tour battleground states next week.
According to CNN, two sources familiar with the plans said on Tuesday that the process of selecting her running mate is nearing completion.
The high-stakes decision on who will run with Harris has taken centre stage since she became the Democratic frontrunner for the Nov. 5 election after U.S. President Joe Biden ended his White House bid just over a week ago.
Harris will announce her vice presidential pick before next week’s tour of states that could swing to Republicans or Democrats in November, one of the sources said.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The shortlist of candidates includes Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer both announced on Monday that they had dropped out of the race for Vice President.
In recent years, a handful of US states, known as battlegrounds, have decided presidential elections, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Campaigns typically begin thinking about their vice-presidential nominee after the primary race concludes in the spring, giving them months to vet candidates and decide who the candidate best fits with personally and politically.
Harris is under pressure to choose her running mate within a very short time frame. The Democratic National Committee has set an August 7 deadline for her, but the sources predict that the decision will happen sooner.
Eric Holder Jr., the former attorney general who led Barack Obama’s vice-presidential vetting process in 2008, is reviewing Harris’ nominees through his law firm, Covington & Burling.
The candidates are conducting informal auditions for the position, hitting the airwaves and campaign stops to demonstrate what they would bring to the Harris ticket.
Shapiro, for example, delivered a rousing testimonial about Harris in the Philadelphia suburbs on Monday.
“She’s not only ready, she’s damned ready,” he said to a cheering crowd. “And you know who else knows she’s ready? Donald Trump knows she’s ready.”
Walz, the governor of Minnesota, is credited with pushing the Democrats’ new criticism of Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance – that they are “weird.”
“The fascists depend on us going back, but we’re not afraid of weird people,” Walz said on Saturday of the Republican ticket. “We’re a little bit creeped out, but we’re not afraid.”
