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Which Veep Contender Will Get Kamala Harris’s Final Rose?

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Thecut.com 
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photos; Getty Images

Vice-President Kamala Harris’s first week campaigning has been, by many metrics, quite the success. Donations have poured in, and volunteers have joined up at a breakneck pace. Beyoncé soundtracked the first official Harris for president ad. The Swifties are already out in full force. The memes are plentiful. Pro-Kamala Zoom events are breaking records. Amid this frenzied energy, one key piece of the campaign has yet to fall into place: Who will Harris pick as her running mate?

There’s a very small window of time available for Harris to make a life-changing decision on who will make the best political partner for her. Presidential candidates typically begin this process in the spring once primaries wrap up, but Harris has just about three weeks until the Democratic National Convention kicks off in mid-August. Meanwhile, political observers are gleefully predicting which VP contenders are going up or down in the court of public opinion every time one of them appears on MSNBC or fires off a viral tweet. This whole blitz has been eerily similar to a season of The Bachelorette: There are high stakes, a compressed timeline, and a roster of contestants who are mostly popular, all-American, straight white men.

So, who’s getting Harris’s final rose? Here’s a quick-and-dirty rundown of the potential vice-presidential candidates being floated. We’re also giving them roses based on their audition tapes recent cable-news appearances. Let the show begin!

Andy Beshear

Age: 46

Occupation: Governor of Kentucky

Fun fact: Beshear has a degree in anthropology and actually considered becoming an archeologist before going to law school. That’s deliciously nerdy and someone should Photoshop him as Indiana Jones immediately.

Here for the right reasons? Yes. Beshear quickly endorsed Harris after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. When asked on MSNBC’s Morning Joe whether he would consider being Harris’s VP, he said, “I think if somebody calls you on that, what you do is at least listen.”

Is Harris keeping him around? Yes. The Harris campaign reportedly asked Beshear to submit vetting materials.

Memorable moment: Beshear took aim in his Morning Joe interview at Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, and his enduring hillbilly cosplay. “I want the American people to know what a Kentuckian is and what they look like,” he said. “Let me just tell you that J.D. Vance ain’t from here. The nerve that he has to call the people of Kentucky — of Eastern Kentucky — “lazy.’” Also, his accent popped off. For that, he gets 3 out of 5 roses.

Pete Buttigieg

Age: 42

Occupation: U.S. secretary of Transportation

Fun fact: In true millennial fashion, Buttigieg has not only taken a quiz to see which Hogwarts House he belongs to, but he’s made that information public. Apparently he is a Hufflepuff. Make of that what you will.

Here for the right reasons? Seems like it! Buttigieg said Harris is “the right person to take up the torch, defeat Donald Trump, and succeed Joe Biden as president.” He also told Rachel Maddow that he “wouldn’t say no” to being Harris’s running mate.

Is Harris keeping him around? Yes, MSNBC reported that Harris is considering him for veep.

Memorable moment: When Vance made his distasteful “childless cat ladies” comments, saying it doesn’t make sense to “to turn the country over” to people without children because they don’t have “a direct stake in it,” he name-checked Buttigieg. When asked about those remarks on CNN this week, Buttigieg said, “The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey. He couldn’t have known that, but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children.” His response was moving and to the point, so he gets 4 out of 5 roses.

Roy Cooper

Age: 67

Occupation: Governor of North Carolina

Fun fact: According to a sweet and since-deleted blog written by his daughters during his 2016 campaign for governor, Cooper once fell through the ceiling after failing to heed his wife’s warnings that he shouldn’t be messing about in the attic. This is classic boomer dad behavior, and I can’t hold it against him.

Here for the right reasons? He sure is. Cooper quickly endorsed Harris and has played coy about the possibility of being her running mate. While he told Morning Joe that he appreciates people considering him as a candidate, he also said, “It’s really important that we do keep the focus on” Harris and that “the vice-presidential conversation needs to occur later.”

Is she keeping him around? Yes, Harris is reportedly vetting Cooper.

Memorable moment: Cooper praised Harris’s record in a press conference this week and also called out Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment. “It’s pretty clear Trump chose someone in his own image,” he said. “Sort of a mini-me.” It’s funny because it is true. But surely Cooper could go harder than that on the opposition, so he gets 3 out of 5 roses.

Mark Kelly

Age: 60

Occupation: U.S. senator from Arizona

Fun fact: Kelly has an identical twin named Scott, and both of them are astronauts who’ve gone on several missions. NASA recently studied them to “observe what physiological, molecular, and cognitive changes” can happen to humans in space while Scott went on a mission for a year and Mark stayed on Earth. Pretty cool!

Here for the right reasons? Yes. Kelly endorsed Harris pretty much off the bat, saying he and his wife, former U.S. representative Gabby Giffords, “will do everything we can to elect her president of the United States.” He’s downplayed the VP conversation, too. “This is not about me,” he said when asked about it this week, adding that “when I’ve had the chance to serve, I think that’s very important to do.”

Is Harris keeping him around? Yes, the campaign has asked Kelly to submit vetting materials.

Memorable moment: Kelly has also criticized Vance for the “childless cat ladies” comment as well as his anti-abortion policies. “It’s utterly ridiculous and obnoxious and wrong,” he said. “What I really worry about is what he would do being one heartbeat away from the presidency.” For reminding us that Vance would like to take women back to the 1950s, Kelly gets 4 out of 5 roses.

J.B. Pritzker

Age: 59

Occupation: Governor of Illinois and billionaire Hyatt Hotels heir

Fun fact: Not only has Pritzker marched for LGBTQ+ rights since he was a young man, but he was caught doing a Jell-O shot during Chicago’s Pride parade last year. If you are a progressive who can do Jello-O shots in your late 50s, you have my respect.

Here for the right reasons? He seems to be. Pritzker called Harris the “party’s best chance to defeat Donald Trump” and has demurred when asked if he’d be her running mate, saying he won’t discuss “private conversations.”

Is Harris keeping him around? She is! Pritzker is one of the potential candidates whom the campaign is vetting.

Memorable moment: Pritzker went after Trump after the former president was convicted of 34 felony charges in June and did not hold back. “Donald Trump is a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, and a congenital liar,” he said. “He’s a racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him.” Because I’m stealing the phrase “congenital liar” and using it in perpetuity, he gets 3 out 5 roses.

Josh Shapiro

Age: 51

Occupation: Governor of Pennsylvania 

Fun fact: Shapiro once told Penn Live that his favorite music genres are “country and rap.” I have so many questions, including: What’s his favorite country song and is it a Dolly Parton one? Biggie or Tupac? He likes rap, but can Shapiro rap? If so, please provide video evidence for our records.

Here for the right reasons? Yes. Shapiro endorsed Harris, saying, “I’ve known Kamala Harris for nearly two decades — we’ve both been prosecutors, we’ve both stood up for the rule of law, we’ve both fought for the people and delivered results.” Asked about potentially being Harris’s running mate, Shapiro demurred and said she should make her choice “free from any political pressure” and on her own timeline.

Is Harris keeping him around? Correct, the campaign is reported to be vetting him.

Memorable moment: Before Biden dropped out last month, Shapiro was out hyping up his administration’s accomplishments and implied that Trump is a little crybaby during an MSNBC interview. “I got a message to Donald Trump and all of his negativity and his whining: Stop shit-talking America!” I like an elected official who cusses in public, so Shapiro gets 4 out of 5 roses.

Tim Walz

Age: 60

Occupation: Governor of Minnesota

Fun fact: Walz was a high-school geography teacher and clearly has an educator’s sense of humor. He recently tweeted that he “supervised the lunchroom” for two decades, adding “You do not leave that job with a full head of hair. Trust me.”

Here for the right reasons? It looks like it! Walz has taken the speculation about whether he’s in contention for the VP spot in stride. He joked this week about his name being floated: “I’ve seen it out there and it’s a little weird!”

Is Harris keeping him around? Yes, Walz is reported to be one of the candidates being vetted.

Memorable moment: The governor had a notably banger-filled Morning Joe appearance this week in which he destroyed Trump’s VP pick’s claim to represent small-town America. “That angst that J.D. Vance talks about in Hillbilly Elegy — none of my hillbilly cousins went to Yale, and none of them went on to be venture capitalists or whatever,” Walz said, adding “these guys are just weird. They’re running for he-man woman-haters’ club or something.” You really should watch the whole thing; Walz gets 5 out of 5 roses.

Gretchen Whitmer

Age: 52

Occupation: Governor of Michigan

Fun fact: According to Whitmer’s recently published memoir, the governor kept a cardboard cutout of herself after a previous campaign and likes to hide it in closets around her house to “scare the crap out” of visitors. We like a candidate with a spectacular sense of humor.

Here for the right reasons? Very much so. Though Whitmer quickly endorsed Harris and is co-chairing her campaign, she also said she plans to complete her term as governor. “I am not leaving Michigan. I am proud to be the governor of Michigan. I have been consistent,” Whitmer told reporters on July 22. “I know everyone is always suspicious and asking this question over and over again: I am not going anywhere.”

Is Harris keeping her around?: Despite Whitmer “communicating to senior party officials” that she is not interested in the VP role, the Harris campaign is reportedly still vetting her.

Memorable moment: Whitmer’s apparent decision to stay in Michigan makes her stick out in this crowded field. There’s definitely an appetite for a two-woman ticket, and the governor herself has said America is ready to break the glass ceiling two times over. But alas, there’s always one contestant who both the lead and audiences love yet is self-aware enough to take themselves out of the running rather than stick it out to the final rose ceremony. For that alone, Whitmer gets 5 out of 5 roses.