Activists gripe about Kamala Harris running mate options

Democrats have unified with remarkable speed behind Vice President Kamala Harris as she has taken over the top of the party’s ticket heading into the November presidential election.

It may be another story when it comes to a running mate.

As Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly have emerged as among the potential finalists, both have faced criticism from some organizations and activists who might otherwise be supportive of Democratic causes.

Harris’ team says she is interviewing six possible choices over the weekend before an announcement expected Monday. The next day, she and her running mate will appear together at a rally in Philadelphia, then visit six more swing states.

In addition to Shapiro and Kelly, Harris is said to be considering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Some labor groups have criticized Kelly for opposing proposed legislation they argue would boost union organizing. Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, said that despite backing Harris for president, his 370,000-member union is not supporting Kelly as a potential running mate.

Fain also said the union does not favor Shapiro, who has previously proved willing to join with Republicans in calls to expand voucher programs that allow public tax dollars to flow to private schools.

Fain did single out Beshear, Walz and Pritzker for praise.

“She’s probably got a thousand people telling her the same thing, you know, of what they think,” Fain said in an interview. “And so she’s got to make the decision based off of what she feels is, you know, is best for her.”

The nonprofit Institute for Middle East Understanding said in a statement that Shapiro “is not the right candidate for the job, and selecting him would be a step in the wrong direction.”

Shapiro, who says he plans to be at Harris’ rally Tuesday in Philadelphia, has aggressively confronted what he views as antisemitism cropping up from pro-Palestinian demonstrations and he has professed solidarity with Israel in its drive to eliminate Hamas as it Israel battles the militants in Gaza.

Shapiro called out universities for not acting quickly to tackle antisemitism and he became a prominent critic of the University of Pennsylvania’s president, Liz Magill. She resigned after testifying at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

Shapiro has also criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while suggesting that any end to the Israel-Hamas war requires the removal of Hamas from power.

The governor has been criticized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations for not condemning Israel for the killing of civilians in Gaza or for not calling for Israel to stop the fighting in the territory. Shapiro has countered that he has met with Muslim Americans and understands their pain.

The progressive activist organization RootsAction.org opposes Shapiro’s views on Israel, school vouchers and the environment, among other issues. It says that in considering Shapiro, Harris “has set off alarm bells among young people, racial justice organizers, Arab Americans, Muslims and others whose votes and campaign activism were crucial to defeating Trump four years ago.”

Meanwhile, The Philadelphia Inquirer resurfaced an opinion article Shapiro wrote in 1993 as a 20-year-old college student at the University of Rochester where he said peace “will never come” to the Middle East and that Palestinians were “too battle-minded” to coexist with Israel.

Asked about it, Shapiro responded, “I was 20” adding that he long has supported a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“It is my hope that we can see a day where peace will reign in the Middle East,” he said.

Also opposing Shapiro are some environmental leaders and residents of the rural town of Dimock, Pennsylvania. They have drafted a letter to Harris urging her not to choose Shapiro and charging that the governor failed to keep his promises to clean up area groundwater contaminated by natural gas production via hydraulic fracturing.

__

Republished with permission of the Associated Press.