Philly's Kamala Harris endorsement event becomes a 'Josh Shapiro for VP' party
Source: Politico
07/26/2024 07:14 PM EDT
PHILADELPHIA — The event was supposed to be all about Kamala Harris raking in the endorsements. But as labor unions and Democratic leaders rallied Friday to declare Pennsylvania’s support for her presidential bid, the focus was all on one man: Gov. Josh Shapiro.
As he stood steps away on stage, Shapiro received endorsement after endorsement from a series of speakers hoping Harris would pick him as her vice presidential candidate. By the end of the event, the heads of two powerful unions, the longtime Joe Biden confidante who chairs the Philadelphia Democratic Party and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker had all backed Shapiro to be Harris’ running mate — and yes, they threw their weight behind Harris, too. “If they take our advice, Josh Shapiro will be our vice president,” Parker said, pointing to his ability to win Pennsylvania.
It was an extraordinarily public display as the veepstakes — normally a sensitive process cloaked more in rumor — moves rapidly out of the shadows. Shapiro is one of the potential candidates being vetted by the Covington & Burling law firm, according to a person familiar with the process granted anonymity to discuss a private process. Possible candidates and their allies have sought to boost their public profile in recent days, including hitting the campaign trail to stump for Harris.
Shapiro plans to lead a Harris volunteer kick-off Saturday in central Pennsylvania before returning to the Philadelphia area on Monday for an event with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — who’s also reportedly in the mix for vice president, despite stressing she’s not interested.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/26/philly-unions-democrats-shapiro-00171491
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There are a whole bunch of PA people on DU. 
I have yet to see (or hear on radio) any McCormick ads. But just last evening on MSNBC, Bob Casey ran 3, 30 second ads in a row, 2 of them absolutely trashing McCormick and his dealings with China AND picking up on what Fetterman did to Oz - focusing on McCormick's carpetbagger status, with pics of his mansion in CT.
On one side of the state that has been losing population.
I am grateful that Casey is running as many ads as he has and has been doing so continuously since the spring. That is because I remember Toomey doing that back in 2016 and it worked to keep some kind of "focus" on himself (while Katie McGinty was unable to overcome that, only running ads here a month or so before the election).
Shapiro is extremely popular in Pa.
Shapiro actually got more votes in his 2020 run for AG re-election than Biden did in his 2020 Presidential run. It boiled down to Shapiro getting a crossover GOP vote (those splitting their tickets), gaining about 3,200 more votes.
It's also instructive to look at what actually happened, vote-wise, with our last primary -
You can already see a significant difference between Biden votes vs 45 votes, which perhaps suggests a term that the media has always used against Democrats but are mum when it comes to Republicans - "lack of enthusiasm".
KEY POINTS FOR THAT
Biden got 140K MORE votes than 45 from the 2024 primary McCormick got 83K MORE votes than 45, being on the same ballot during the 2024 primary
That "difference" could be attributed to the fact that we have a "closed primary" and the indies would be missing (and we need to lock them in for the general).
But even then, when you have McCormick, who ran in the SAME GOP primary as 45, getting MORE votes than 45, let's focus on THAT!
THAT should be a RED FLAG for 45.
Even though I had to race to mute his voice several times this morning on the radio, my local news radio station was playing clips of 45's remarks last evening claiming that Harris "hated Jews", despite being married to one.
So with THAT context (and with his own son-in-law being a Jew), he can't suddenly pivot and go after Shapiro. This is why 45 is such a wildcard for the GOP because he does his own thing, and has never "stayed on message".