Harris campaign casts wider net for VP and looks outside elected office for candidates

Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly casting a wider net in her search for a running mate, looking to current administration officials, Democratic lawmakers and potentially other high-profile figures who do not currently hold elected office.

It previously appeared that Harris had winnowed her list tojust two people. But with a team helping her vet a pool of potential vice presidential picks, that number seems to be growing, with only two weeks left to decide.

Harris is now vetting roughly a dozen candidates, including Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, according to CBS News.

That list adds to previously reported candidates including Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

That campaign is also looking at people who are not holding office, according to CBS. But, none of those candidates have been named.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has moved quickly to unite members of Congress and a majority of Democratic delegates around her candidacy within days of President Joe Biden ending his re-election campaign and endorsing his vice president.

She recently tapped former attorney general Eric Holder to help vet potential running mates.

A team working with Holder, the nation’s first Black attorney general who served for six years during Barack Obama’s administration, started conversations with potential running mates earlier this week.

Within 24 hours of its launch, her campaign pulled in more than $81 million in donations – marking the biggest single-day raise in