Harris hours away from most consequential announcement of her career

Vice President Kamala Harris is facing the most significant decision of her quarter-century political career – choosing a running mate to join her on the Democratic Party's national ticket.

And an announcement of her decision is expected in the coming hours – ahead of the first rally by Harris and her running mate Tuesday evening in Philadelphia.

It's the crucial moment in the most consequential stretch for Harris in the two weeks since she replaced President Biden at the top of the Democrats' 2024 ticket.

The vetting, screening and interviewing of running mates normally takes months. But these are far from normal times for the Democrats, and Harris is facing an extremely compressed timetable.

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Harris stayed in the nation's capital this weekend, meeting in-person with Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota, and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, three of the roughly half-dozen running mate contenders, Democratic sources confirmed to Fox News.

Among those also in contention, according to sources, are Govs. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and JB Pritzker of Illinois, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Ahead of her meetings with the contenders, Harris was briefed by a vetting team led by former Attorney General Eric Holder.

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The rollout of the announcement is not known, but it's likely it could come through a video introduction, similar to how Biden announced Harris as his running mate four years ago. But the Harris campaign's plans could be upended on Monday or Tuesday by a media leak of the announcement.

It's been mostly smooth sailing for Harris since Biden's blockbuster announcement amid a