Harris’ VP candidates narrow: We talked to political reporters from their home states

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: Political reporters and interested politicos and observers are keeping a watch on their phones, refreshing their social feeds, and watching for word on Kamala Harris' pick for her running mate. By tomorrow at this time, we should know who she'll run with. Reuters just reported that the two candidates left in the running are Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, although we haven't confirmed that report ourselves. There are also reports the Harris campaign will officially announce her running mate sometime tomorrow morning, followed by a Philadelphia rally later in the day.

Well, we thought it might be helpful to look at some of the other candidates who are vying with Governor Walz to be the Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee. Joining us right now with more on Governor Shapiro's chances is WHYY political reporter Carmen Russell-Sluchansky from Philadelphia. Carmen, I know you're busy. Thanks for joining us.

CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Absolutely my pleasure. Good afternoon.

CATHY WURZER: Good afternoon. So we know that Pennsylvania is a critical swing state, which is why Kamala Harris is presumably looking at Governor Shapiro. What are the strengths that Shapiro brings to a Harris ticket?

CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Yeah. Obviously, like you said, Pennsylvania is considered probably essential to a Harris win in November. And it's interesting. I don't think we'd actually be talking about Shapiro but for the fact that-- except for that fact. So as you know, you probably know, Shapiro has only been in office as governor for like a year and a half at this point, so he doesn't have a lot of time in his current role, unlike Governor Walz, who's been there since 2019.

But in that time, he's become very popular. So I was just looking at polling. He's been called the most popular governor in the history of Pennsylvania. And his favorability rate is around 60%. And he also appears to have a lot of crossover appeal that Democrats, I believe, hope will actually come out-- will actually help them win the state in November.

CATHY WURZER: A lot of Democratic State and congressional lawmakers are backing Governor Walz for VP. What's the word from Pennsylvania lawmakers, including Senator Fetterman? Are they pushing Shapiro?

CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Well, it's funny you mentioned Fetterman. Fetterman not so much. He has apparently privately offered some reservations. However, other than Fetterman, across the state, Democrats are really lobbying-- I mean, literally lobbying Harris to choose Shapiro saying that they think that he would be a good pick.

And I've also been talking to two Republican legislators, former Republican Congressmen such as Charlie Dent and Jim Greenwood, who are also effectively lobbying for Shapiro to be that pick because they think that he can pull more-- actually, to be clear, these are Never-Trumper Republicans and they think that Shapiro will actually help Harris win Pennsylvania by getting some of those moderate Republicans on their side.

CATHY WURZER: So if he is selected by Kamala Harris, he would be the first Jewish VP candidate, I believe. One issue that got really heated over the weekend was the Governor's position on Israel. Can you talk about that in his effects-- that effect on his chances for being VP?

CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Yeah, absolutely. I will point out that Joe Lieberman was the first--

CATHY WURZER: That is true. Thank you.

CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Right. Yeah, no worries. And actually won the popular vote back in 2000, right?

CATHY WURZER: That's right.

CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: But Shapiro would be if Harris-- if a Harris-Shapiro ticket won in November, then he would be certainly the first Jewish politician in the White House. But yeah, he has made some comments very strongly in support of Israel after October 7. And I should say, he walked back walk that back more recently by calling Netanyahu the worst PM in Israeli history, and also saying that it's basically his fault that the war has gone on so long and that so many people have been killed and so forth.

I think Progressives have specifically been concerned about his comments about the protesters, the anti-war protesters in Pennsylvania. Like at UPenn, they had an encampment that lasted several weeks and so forth, and he basically called them anti-Semitic. And when the encampment was broken down by police, he said it was past time that that had happened. So Progressives have been particularly concerned about that.

I actually talked with Alan Minsky, who is a-- who is the executive director of the Progressive Democrats of America, and he thinks that really hurts his chances given the uncommitted vote that there was for Biden, that if Harris picks Shapiro, that that movement will actually gain some more steam again.

But then again, I've also talked to Progressive legislators here in Pennsylvania, such as State Representative Mike Schlossberg, who says that, frankly, he sees-- he thinks that Shapiro's view on Israel in all this is actually more Progressive than your average Democrat, maybe even more than Harris.

CATHY WURZER: Hm. I know you're working your sources today, Carmen. What's your take on this Reuters report that it's down to Shapiro and Walz?

CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: That's-- well, there's enough evidence. I think there's significant evidence for that. Just because-- you probably saw The Wall Street Journal article some time ago that basically said that it's going to be Governor because of the speed with-- the funding that they were-- the contributions that they were looking for.

I do think that-- it's interesting that Kelly might not have made it to the top two, but there does seem to be evidence that it-- well, one of us is going to be extremely busy after tomorrow, let's just put it that way.

CATHY WURZER: Well, you've got the Philadelphia rally no matter what, though, tomorrow, so you got something to cover. You know.

CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, we have JD Vance coming here tomorrow, too. It's really wild that they're both-- that both these big events are happening.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Well, I know you're busy. Carmen, thank you so much for your time.

CARMEN RUSSELL-SLUCHANSKY: Thank you so much. I appreciate it, it was fun.

CATHY WURZER: WHYY's political reporter, Carmen Russell-Sluchansky. Now, we mentioned that another Vice Presidential contender at the top of the presumed Democratic Presidential Ticket with Kamala Harris' list is Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.

Now yesterday, Kelly posted and then deleted a slightly cryptic message on Twitter that some are speculating may mean he's no longer in the running. Jeremy Duda from Axios Phoenix is here with more about his chances. Jeremy, I know it's early. Thanks for joining us.

JEREMY DUDA: No problem, thanks for having me.

CATHY WURZER: I appreciate you getting up here and talking to us. So Mark Kelly posted on Twitter, "My background is a bit different than most politicians. I spent my life serving in the Navy and at NASA where the mission always comes first. Now my mission is serving Arizonans," and then he deleted it. What's going on there?

JEREMY DUDA: Hard to say. He also tweeted something about, "I've learned that when your country asks you to serve, you always answer the call," and think that got a lot of people buzzing. And Senator Kelly's spokesperson in DC tweeted-- retweeted it and said, "Hey, an Arizona Senator's tweeting about being an Arizona Senator. That's not news."

So it's kind of hard-- it's definitely seemed very cryptic. It's kind of hard to see. I guess we'll find out within the next 24 hours whether we should have been reading anything into it.

CATHY WURZER: All right. What's made Senator Kelly a top qualifier for the Harris campaign?

JEREMY DUDA: Well, Mark Kelly has, I mean, really a gold-plated resume for someone in politics. Combat veteran from Desert Storm, I believe. Astronaut. The husband of Gabby Giffords, who was, of course, a beloved Congresswoman out here who was very tragically shot in the head during a mass shooting in 2011, and he kind of came to prominence publicly helping nurse her back to health and always been by her side as she recovered from that horrible shooting.

And he was always-- the word on him back then was that he really didn't like politics. He dealt with it grudgingly because his wife was a member of Congress, and then, of course, was thrust into the spotlight after the shooting. And I think Democrats spent years trying to recruit him to get into politics. Gabby Giffords was always viewed as someone who had a bright future as possibly as a senator, or who knows, maybe even higher. And then since then, there was-- Democrats spent a long time trying to recruit Mark Kelly.

And once he got in, he got in with the full force. Elected twice as Senator-- a Democratic Senator in a state that, up until recent years, rarely voted for Democrats for anything on a statewide basis. He's won two races in two years because you had to run in a special election, and he was the top vote-getter among Democrats in 2020 and 2022, which would include President Biden when he won the state in 2020, and as well as three statewide elected officials-- Democratic statewide elected officials elected in 2022, and Mark Kelly got more votes than all of them.

CATHY WURZER: So a pretty popular guy. But what kind of baggage does he have?

JEREMY DUDA: Well, most notably-- and if you lived in Arizona during his two Senate races, saw this on TV all the time. He founded-- I believe it was back in 2012, he founded a space exploration company that got some startup capital from Tencent, one of the largest companies in China.

And that-- it's definitely not a good look, definitely something the Republicans look to capitalize on. No one-- this is not a time when anyone running for office really wants to have any business ties to China, and he is-- stopped working with World View, which is the company back in 2019, he put his stock in a blind trust, but he still has those ties.

That's not going to look good on the campaign trail, especially Trump-- former President Trump definitely has a tendency to bring up China a lot, and that's-- trade with China is always one of his big issues, and this will only highlight that more if Mark Kelly is on the ticket.

CATHY WURZER: Of course, immigration is a big issue this election season. What might he bring to the table on that issue?

JEREMY DUDA: Well, he has been a bit more of a moderate position than a lot of Democrats in Congress. He broke with President Biden when the President got rid of Title 42. Border policy that was enacted under President Trump. He was a supporter of the bipartisan border bill that went sideways, largely due to President Trump kind of urging folks to oppose it.

So he's not-- I mean, he's not a border hawk by any means, but as far as Congressional Democrats go, he has at least somewhat of a moderate record he can fall back on there.

CATHY WURZER: And final question, what did you think of that Reuters report that it's just down to Shapiro and Walz?

JEREMY DUDA: Definitely seems like reports indicate that Kamala Harris is looking for a governor. I think not too surprising. I mean, obviously everyone's looking to Pennsylvania as a must-win state. Governor Waltz has a lot of appeal in the Midwest here in Arizona. Mark Kelly is very popular. As I mentioned, he is the top Democratic vote-getter.

But this is still a center-right state, and Kamala Harris doesn't necessarily need Arizona to win the presidency the way she needs Pennsylvania. And it's hard to say whether picking Senator Kelly, even as popular as he's been in the last two elections, does that actually win you Arizona, a state that only gone-- voted for a Democrat in a Presidential race twice since 1948?

CATHY WURZER: Right. Jeremy, thank you so much, it's been a pleasure talking to you.

JEREMY DUDA: Thanks for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Jeremy Douda is a reporter from Axios Phoenix. Right now, we're going to throw it to our Political Reporter, Dana Ferguson. Thanks. I know you're busy. I was talking to a talking to a DFL operative Friday night, Dana, who said if the Governor cancels his appearance tonight at a Harris fundraiser in the Twin Cities. He's the guy, but at last word, Walz is still scheduled to be there. It's become kind of a game trying to divine clues as to who the pick is. What's the latest? What are you hearing?

DANA FERGUSON: Yeah. So it is worth noting that he was scheduled to be at that event tonight in Minneapolis. We really haven't heard anything from him or from his team about whether he's going to be there. We know that he has been part of these last-second interviews. Several outlets have reported that he was in Washington yesterday for that sit-down with Vice President Harris.

And, I mean, other than that, we've been trying to get a hold of folks who are on his team, his comms folks and with the Harris campaign here, and just have not had a lot of luck in that.

CATHY WURZER: Well, he's been campaigning for the-- it seems like he's been campaigning for the job. I mean, he's been all over media for the past couple of weeks.

DANA FERGUSON: That's right. He has been on TV quite a bit. I'm sure many of our listeners have seen him. Not as present in terms of giving time to local media. Of course, we've all been trying to catch up and take questions about this, but also about other issues as far as running the State of Minnesota is concerned. So he's been out there and really trying to make the point that Democrats are very different from Republicans and the ticket led by Donald Trump.

CATHY WURZER: Specifically, what's he been saying?

DANA FERGUSON: Yeah, he's been forceful about talking about the ways that government actions have improved and can improve people's lives. He talks quite a bit about his own upbringing in rural America, as well as his job as a teacher before he went into politics. He's also suggested, too, that Democrats do more than Republicans to help rural voters, even though a lot of rural communities have supported Republicans recently.

And I should note that the Governor uses a lot of humorous, catchy lines that he tries to get Republicans on. He's been using the word "weird" quite a bit to talk about Trump and about JD Vance, his running mate. So that seems to be a line that's really catching on. We've heard Harris and other big-name Democrats take on that descriptor and use it to characterize Republicans and their policy platforms.

CATHY WURZER: So we just heard from two of our colleagues, one in Pennsylvania, another one in Arizona about Shapiro and Senator Kelly, two other finalists in consideration. So when you look at Governor Walz, how does he stack up compared to those other two?

DANA FERGUSON: Yeah. Well, he's not a swing state governor or senator, as we know, but he's really been emphasizing the fact that he is swing state-adjacent. So he points to progressive policies that he's helped get across the finish line here that might be popular with voters in Wisconsin or Michigan or Pennsylvania.

And in contrast to Shapiro and Kelly, Walz brings a unique set of credentials, having served in both Congress and as a governor. So many of his supporters say that gives him a unique perspective. His backers also think his background as a teacher and a National Guard veteran will help him connect to groups that Vice President Harris maybe can't.

But he comes with baggage, too. He's faced questions already about Minnesota's response to George Floyd's murder and the riots that followed, and widespread fraud uncovered in the Feeding Our Future program.

CATHY WURZER: Now are we thinking that there is still an opportunity today yet for an announcement? Or is it just going to be tomorrow morning? What are you hearing?

DANA FERGUSON: We're hearing more that it'll be tomorrow, but there's always the chance that there could be news that comes out of these meetings. On the more official side, it sounds like they'd prefer it to be tomorrow, but we know that it's got to happen pretty soon because they have this five-day, seven-state battleground tour that Harris and her Vice Presidential pick will be going out and doing starting tomorrow, and that starts in Philadelphia.

And just a little plug here, I should note that our colleague, Mark Zdechlik, is on the way out there, so stay tuned for some of his reporting on the ground.

CATHY WURZER: Excellent. We will, and we appreciate what you're doing, too. Thank you, Dana.

DANA FERGUSON: Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: That's MPR Politics Reporter Dana Ferguson.