Some Democratic strategists have expressed doubt that Vice President and presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris should pick Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as her running mate in the November election, Politico reported on Saturday.
Whitmer’s name has been circulated as a possible choice for a vice presidential role alongside Harris, now the front-runner for the Democratic nomination based on a party insider vote given that President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday. But some Democrats and strategists were dubious that a Harris-Whitmer ticket — or, more broadly, a ticket with two women — could be successful, according to Politico.
“She could [pick a woman]. But she’s not,” Bill Shaheen, husband of Democratic New Hampshire Sen. Jeanna Shaheen, told Politico after introducing Whitmer at an event to gather support for Harris in New Hampshire on Thursday. Shaheen instead expressed interest in Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly as Harris’ possible running mate, feeling that he’d make a good rival to former President Donald Trump’s pick of Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
“We want to believe the country would support two women on a ticket when it has yet to support one woman as president,” Massachusetts-based Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh told Politico. “Do you want to take a risk with so much at stake?”
Whitmer declared in several interviews during her trip to New Hampshire that the country was indeed ready to throw their support behind an all-female ticket, pointing to the fact that “we’ve had two men since the dawn of time,” according to Politico. But she has repeatedly dismissed the idea of running as vice president and maintains that she is “not a part of the process.”
“There’s so much divisiveness that as much as I wish that we were ready for that, I’m not sure that we are,” Maxine Mosley, a Democratic National Convention (DNC) delegate, told Politico of an all-female ticket.
Several other high-level Democratic names are being mused for the vice presidential role as Harris and her team make decisions on a rushed timeline, given that the DNC expects her to make her pick by Aug. 7, according to Politico. Among those names are North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Department of Commerce Secretary Gov. Gina Raimondo.
“I don’t know that the country is ready for two women at the top of the ticket,” Alison Hamilton, a New Hampshire Democrat, told Politico.
”We’re there for Kamala. Two women? I don’t know,” added Jan Collier, Hamilton’s sister.
Whitmer’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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