'Should have been Josh Shapiro': Harris' VP contenders passed over for Walz dodge massive campaign loss

A handful of Democrats previously in the running to land on the presidential ticket as Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate dodged the campaign's massive loss to President-elect Donald Trump. 

Trump sailed to the 270 needed electoral votes to lock down the win, and Harris conceded the race Wednesday afternoon in a call to Trump. She is also slated to address the nation later Wednesday regarding her defeat. 

In addition to Trump and the dozens of congressional and gubernatorial incumbents and candidates across both political parties who notched victories, Democrats in Harris’ orbit who were floated as vice presidential contenders also emerged as winners for not joining the Democratic ticket. 

Harris courted a number of potential VPs in her truncated campaign window after President Biden dropped out of the race over the summer and ultimately chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to join her on the ticket. The elected officials Harris passed over for VP emerged as winners this cycle. Their political star status rose during Harris’ vetting process, yet they bypassed direct involvement with the Democratic Party’s massive loss to the former president Harris slammed as a "Nazi" and "fascist." 

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Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro 

Vice President Kamala Harris and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro speak to the press while making a stop at Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia July 13, 2024.  (Ryan Collerd/AFP)

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Democratic Keystone State Gov. Josh Shapiro was touted as a highly likely pick for VP over the summer, before Democrats converged on Chicago for the DNC in August. Pennsylvania was again a top battleground state this election cycle, with pundits viewing the state as the likely decider for the overall outcome of the election. 

Pennsylvania ultimately voted for Trump and moved him across the finish line. 

The popular first-term governor was viewed as a potential key for the Harris campaign to reach the coveted 270 electoral votes to lock up the election. Shapiro, who is Jewish, was also touted as a potential bridge for the Harris campaign to court Jewish voters amid backlash over her previous comments defending anti-Israel protesters who rocked college campuses last year during the war in Israel. 

Harris snubbed Shapiro in favor of Walz, who was relatively unknown to the public outside of Minnesota and Washington, D.C., before becoming Harris’ running mate. 

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​​"You oughta ask yourself why didn’t she pick Josh Shapiro as her VP?" Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said during an appearance on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo just ahead of Election Day. "The answer is, in today’s Democrat Party, they could not stomach a candidate who was Jewish."

Now that the presidential election is over, Shapiro could make a run on his own for the White House in the future after his name recognition grew on the national level this year and due to him being from the top battleground state of this year's cycle. 

Sen. Mark Kelly 

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., speaks with reporters while waiting to catch the Senate subway to the Hart Senate Office Building from the U.S. Capitol July 25, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was also floated as a running mate contender, and pundits and political insiders touted him as a well-known candidate with national star status as a retired NASA astronaut. Kelly is also married to retired Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011 and has since become a well-known gun control activist. 

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Kelly also avoided attaching his name directly to the failed 2024 Democratic ticket, instead focusing on his Senate term. 

Kelly notably flipped late Republican Sen. John McCain’s Senate seat in 2020, notching a historic win for Democrats in the state, and the party holds both Senate seats for the first time since the 1950s. 

He is now positioned to potentially run for president in the future. 

"If Mark Kelly wants to run for president in the future, he's immediately in the small circle of people who have a shot," political consultant Andy Barr told Axios early this year. 

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear 

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File)

Kentucky’s governor, Andy Beshear, has served as the Bluegrass State’s leader since 2019 and was viewed as a centrist Democrat who could have appealed to moderate voters at the federal level if he had joined the Harris ticket. 

The 46-year-old also could have appealed to younger voters but was sidelined in favor of Walz. 

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Beshear won a second term as governor in the deep red state last year as speculation mounted he could launch a presidential campaign in the future. 

"I'm sure many people around him are saying, 'You may have just a perfect formula for a Democrat moving forward’," Dewey Clayton, a political scientist at the University of Louisville, told the Courier Journal over the summer. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, speaks at a campaign event in Ann Arbor, Mich., Oct. 28, 2024. (AP/Paul Sancya)

On the flip side, the Harris campaign is catching flak from political insiders who say choosing Walz as the VP nominee was a losing prospect, with many arguing Shapiro would have been the best candidate. 

"As a founding member of She Shoulda Picked Shapiro, I think it's relatively clear now that she made a mistake," statistician Nate Silver told The New York Times ahead of Election Day. 

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"Pennsylvania seems to be lagging a little behind the other blue wall states. Meanwhile, Walz was mediocre in the debate, and he's been mediocre and nervous in his public appearances."

Harris-Walz surrogate Lindy Li told Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich from Howard University that Shapiro would have likely aided the Harris campaign’s efforts to notch a massive victory. 

Supporters react to early election results at Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' election night rally during the 2024 U.S. presidential election at Howard University, in Washington, D.C., Nov. 5, 2024. (Reuters/Daniel Cole)

"One of the things that are top of mind is the choice of Tim Walz as vice presidential candidate," Li said. "A lot of people are saying tonight that it should have been Josh Shapiro. Frankly, people have been saying that for months.

"I know a lot of people are probably wondering tonight what would have happened had Shapiro been on the ticket," Li continued. "And not only in terms of Pennsylvania. He's famously a moderate. So, that would have signaled to the American people that she is not the San Francisco liberal that Trump said she was."

Walz will conclude his second term as governor in 2027. 

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