Why didn’t Kamala Harris choose Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate?

Pennsylvania’s Governor Josh Shapiro was on Kamala Harris’s VP shortlist the whole time. Even when she culled the list down to a couple of names, Shapiro was in the mix. Shapiro was one of the potential VP candidates who traveled to Washington over the weekend to be interviewed by VP Harris in person. Apparently, the interview went poorly – so poorly, that Shapiro’s people immediately went into face-saving mode and briefed the political media that Shapiro had mixed feelings about leaving the governorship of Pennsylvania. Which is actually the best possible scenario – instead of hurt feelings and recriminations, Shapiro saved face and now he will be a quality ally in a must-win state for the Harris-Walz ticket. Here’s what Politico had about the interview:

Walz is seen by Harris’ camp as a deft messenger, popularizing “weird” as a messaging framework to describe former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance — a cutting and clear tagline that went viral over the last two weeks.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, another finalist, avoided the green-room circuit and instead touted Harris and his own record at a series of events throughout the state. A pro-Harris event in Philadelphia turned into a Shapiro-for-VP party. His style was seen by at least some in Harris’ world as showboating. One senior Democrat in touch with Harris’ team called it “counterproductive.”

And there was a sense within Shapiro’s team that, unlike Walz, his interview with Harris did not go as well as it could have. There was “not a great feeling” coming out of it, according to a person in touch with his advisers.

After their meeting on Sunday, Shapiro called Harris’ team and made clear that he was “struggling with the decision to leave his current job as governor of Pennsylvania, in order to seek the vice presidency,” according to a person familiar with the selection process.

[From Politico]

Yeah, this is what I read from the tea leaves in the past two weeks: Tim Walz’s very public audition via cable-news appearances was very well received. He stayed on message, he showed loyalty to Harris, and his demeanor and manner was everything Harris was looking for. Meanwhile, Shapiro centered himself and seemed reluctant to play the happy-warrior and national messenger. I also believe that there was a feeling that Shapiro wasn’t ready for primetime on a national stage, especially if he bungled his in-person interview.

Yamiche Alcindor also reports that the Harris campaign did not see Shapiro as someone who could guarantee the state of Pennsylvania for them, based on their own internal polling. My guess is that Shapiro wouldn’t give them anything they couldn’t already get with Walz (without Shapiro’s baggage on the national stage).

Speaking of Shapiro’s baggage, the Trump campaign is crowing that they did a “whisper campaign” to convince Democrats that Shapiro would be a bad VP pick. The assumption being, Shapiro was the one Trumpers were worried about? They’re claiming that they were the ones dumping oppo research on social media and beyond. But that doesn’t add up – there were plenty of Democrats who already had deep concerns about Shapiro’s stances on public schools and vouchers. Dems already had concerns about his messy involvement in a top aide’s sexual harassment case. There was also the Ellen Greenberg case, which would have blown up nationally if Shapiro was the pick. As I said – too much baggage with too little reward, especially if the Harris campaign’s internal polling suggested that Shapiro wouldn’t even guarantee Pennsylvania.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.