Kamala Harris may choose someone to chart her own path
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
With speculation swirling about who presumptive Democratic nominee and current Vice President Kalama Harris may choose as her running mate, one name unlikely to emerge is current Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“It would be tough for him,” Ryan Bernstein, a senior policy advisor for McGuireWoods, an organization representing food and agribusiness interests, told Farms.com. “He’s been in D.C. for quite a while and has served multiple (the Obama and Biden) administrations. Whoever Harris chooses will likely be a representation of her charting her own path.”
Bernstein is also a former chief of staff for North Dakota Senator John Hoeven and worked with members of the Senate on recent farm bills.
Secretary Vilsack has been in the conversation as a potential vice president in prior elections.
In 2016, for example, people in U.S. politics believed he could’ve been Hilary Clinton’s running mate before she chose Tim Kaine.
Vilsack served as the ag secretary for all eight years of Obama’s presidency, and President Biden re-appointed him to the position in February 2021.
From 1999 to 2007, Vilsack served as governor of Iowa, a major ag production state.
He has multiple years of experience understanding the needs of the ag community and rural America.
But other potential VP candidates do too, Bernstein said.
“I think Harris’s considerations about a vice president will take rural America into account,” he said. “That’s why you’re seeing Gov. (Tim) Walz from Minnesota or Gov. (Andy) Beshear from Kentucky, or Gov. (Josh) Shapiro from Pennsylvania come out as top contenders. They represent states that tend to be a little more rural, and I think she’s thinking hard about whoever she picks being able to connect with that part of the country.”
Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona is also seen as a potential VP choice, multiple media reports suggest. Current Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s name has come up too.
Americans may not have to wait much longer to find out her running mate.
She is expected to announce it by Tuesday before the pair hold a rally in Pennsylvania, Politico reported.
Gambling site Bet365 has Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s odds at -300 with a 75 percent implied win probability.