Kamala Harris poised to announce running mate

The crowds are psyched, the campaign donations are flooding in and volunteers are showing up at field offices in droves.

After a smooth two-week campaign startup, US Vice President Kamala Harris is headed into a crucial week that includes her most critical decision yet – choosing a running mate – while grappling with how to keep the political momentum alive.

Harris, a former prosecutor known for being deliberative, effectively has a deadline of Tuesday to select who will be her number two from a list that has been whittled down to four.

It’s a high-pressure decision that usually spans several months but in this case it is compressed into a matter of just weeks.

Harris and his running mate will launch into an aggressive, seven-state battleground tour that begins in Philadelphia on Tuesday and winds through Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

Her early rallies have attracted enthusiastic thousands but campaign officials are aware that momentum can be fleeting and are working to capitalize on the energy now, while managing expectations by continuing to emphasize the race with Republican nominee Donald Trump is tight.

But the strong rollout has allowed the Harris campaign to put a number of states back in play that had been feared out of reach when President Joe Biden remained at the top of the ticket.

She has not faced the level of scrutiny that presidential candidates typically face. While she has kept up a busy schedule of public appearances, she has rarely taken questions from the press and has not sat for an in-depth interview.

After four years advocating for Biden’s positions, she’ll have to stake out positions of her own on the political controversies that divide Democrats.

Her first television ad last week portrayed her as “fearless” and emphasized what has emerged as a rallying cry for her campaign: “We are not going back.”

She is also emphasizing the concept of freedom, focusing not just on Trump as a threat to democracy but also the freedom to have an abortion and be safe from gun violence.

Her prosecutorial background is emerging as a central dividing line with Trump. In rallies and ads, she contrasts her record of going after hardened criminals and corporate wrongdoers against Trump’s indictments, convictions and civil judgments.

Trump is racing to define her as a soft-on-crime San Francisco liberal who was tasked with securing the border as vice president but failed.

As she and her running mate hit the battleground states this week, the vice president is planning a renewed offensive in Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia.

“We are the underdogs in this race,” the campaign’s battleground director, Dan Kanninen, told reporters.

“But the groundswell of support around the vice president is real, and it’s meaningful. Our task now is to translate that enthusiasm into action.”

Harris is remaining quiet this weekend, with interviews underway for about a half-dozen potential running mates.

The contenders on her list, all white men are: Governors Andy Beshear of Kentucky, JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota, as well as Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, according to people with knowledge of Harris’ selection process.