Vice President Kamala Harris all but officially secured the Democratic nomination for president late Monday night, the DNC announced, making her only the second woman — and first woman of color — to do so.
Now comes another huge moment, perhaps just as decisive. Harris is expected to unveil her running mate for the top of the November ticket today.
The pair will later appear at an event at Temple University in Philadelphia, the first stop in a five-day blitz that will take Harris to some of the key battleground states — Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada. Harris will end the week in San Francisco, back home where it all began for her.
Speculation swirled Monday night around two popular Democratic governors — Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota. The lobbying campaign surrounding both men highlights the progressive-moderate split inside the party. One of those factions will be disappointed by whoever she chooses. But the desire to beat former President Donald Trump is likely to outweigh any internal party disputes, Harris and her advisers hope.
Up until now, Harris has had a pretty charmed launch of her presidential bid. She raised more than $200 million during her first week in the race, a staggering sum. Harris has erased President Joe Biden’s deficit in the polls, or is even ahead of Trump in some surveys. Harris’ campaign is packing arenas and drawing tens of thousands of supporters for Zoom calls. And Harris has unified the Democratic Party after a nasty round of infighting over Biden’s ability to win in November.
There are 91 days until Election Day. Whether Harris — a very careful deliberator — goes with Shapiro or Walz, she’ll be forced to explain the pick and rally Democrats around her running mate.
A number of key progressives are pushing for Walz, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.). Both lawmakers joined a “Progressives for Harris” Zoom call Monday night that attracted more than 100,000 listeners.
Neither mentioned the veepstakes on the call, although they stressed the need to keep the momentum going. Here’s Jayapal on the current moment for Democrats:
But Harris isn’t president — that’s still Biden’s job. She has limited decision-making powers. Yet Harris has to contend with all the fallout from the decisions Biden makes over the next three months.
The economy. July’s jobs numbers combined with a market downturn Monday have given fuel to the idea that the U.S. economy could be entering a recession. Let’s be clear: economists and stock market experts are about as good as pollsters these days. Let’s not go crazy yet.
But stocks were battered Monday. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy NASDAQ were both down roughly 3%. The Dow fared slightly better.
The Nikkei 225 index recaptured much of the lost ground from Monday, its worst day in decades. Investors will be watching very closely what happens in European markets and on Wall Street today.
If the U.S. economy slips into a recession, or it looks like a downturn is imminent, you know Trump will hammer Harris over it. He and GOP leaders are already slamming Democrats on inflation and the high cost of living.
Problems in the Mideast and beyond. The crisis in the Middle East is growing. Rockets were fired at U.S. troops at Ain al Asad Air Base in western Iraq Monday. The New York Times reported that the attack “resembled previous ones carried out by Iran-backed Iraqi armed groups.”
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday evening that he spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and the two “agreed the attack from Iran-aligned militias on U.S. forces stationed at Al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq marked a dangerous escalation” by proxies in the region.
Meanwhile, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, has been in Israel this week consulting with military leaders as Iran plans to, once again, attack the Jewish State in revenge for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Haniyeh ran Hamas’ political office in Qatar.
On Israel, Harris has an extremely intricate balance to strike. Progressives loathe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and how he’s prosecuted the war in Gaza against Hamas. In her own recent meeting with Netanyahu, Harris pressed him for a ceasefire and hostage deal, something that Biden has done for months too.
But Israel has been and is expected to be under attack by Iran and its proxies any time now. The United States has already said that it would defend Israel against such attacks — as it did in April — raising the prospects of a wider regional conflict in the midst of a White House campaign. Trump and Republicans will look to highlight anything less than 100% support for Israel, even as the Gaza war grinds on.
