10 thoughts on Harris' dark horse Veep
The surprise of Tim Walz. The fall of Josh Shapiro.
The still-molding Harris campaign team deserves considerable credit for keeping her running mate selection under wraps until the morning of the rollout. The tight lid permitted her maximum flexibility to deliberate while keeping interest and intrigue high on the outside. Leaks were minimal and strategically incremental. Her inner circle choreographed the process on their own terms, which is no guarantee inside an operation that touches so many people.
That the Veepstakes front-runner — Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro — wasn’t selected, is a lesson for how fluid the selection process can be. On Friday, Axios reported that White House, campaign and party sources were all pointing to Shapiro. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona was listed as the finalist. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz wasn’t even mentioned in the accounting. This means Harris kept her cards so close to her vest, she fooled some people around her, intentionally or not. But she owns this pick — favorably or not — in a particular way given how it upset conventional wisdom.
Shapiro’s failure to clinch the slot as a Veep front-runner will be initially