{"id":30263,"date":"2024-07-30T03:22:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T08:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30263"},"modified":"2024-07-30T03:23:02","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T08:23:02","slug":"josh-shapiro-and-gretchen-whitmer-rally-together-for-harris-as-running-mate-jockeying-heats-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=30263","title":{"rendered":"Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer rally together for Harris as running mate jockeying heats up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AMBLER, Pa. \u2014 Govs. Josh Shapiro<\/a> and Gretchen Whitmer \u2014 both under consideration to be Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 running mate \u2014 held a joint rally Monday in the Philadelphia suburbs where they drew contrasts between the Democrats\u2019 new standard-bearer and former President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapiro, of Pennsylvania, and Whitmer, of Michigan, drew a crowd of more than 1,000 that included many who said they were intrigued by the idea that they could be hearing from Harris\u2019 eventual VP pick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow good is John Shapiro?\u201d Whitmer said. \u201cWell, he\u2019s gotten a heck of a lot done in just over \u2026 the last year and a half. And it\u2019s another example of Democratic governors who believe in our three-part strategy: Get s— done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crowd chanted in response: \u201cGet s— done! Get s— done!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapiro is considered to be among the leading contenders for the No. 2 spot, along with others like Sen. Mark Kelly, of Arizona, while Whitmer said Monday on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe\u201d that she has \u201ccommunicated with everyone, including the campaign, that I\u2019ve made a commitment to serve out my term as governor in Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper<\/a>, who was considered another top contender, withdrew his name from consideration Monday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitmer and Shapiro cemented their status as rising Democratic stars in 2022 when they won their elections in landslide victories. Monday\u2019s rally in Montgomery County \u2014 Shapiro\u2019s home \u2014 was the first time they have held a rally together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They talked up Harris\u2019 career as a prosecutor, from her time as district attorney in San Francisco to attorney general of California, with Shapiro calling her \u201ctough as nails.\u201d They contrasted her candidacy with Trump\u2019s by saying she is for \u201creal freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPennsylvanians are a lot like Michiganders and Wisconsinites,\u201d Whitmer said. \u201cWe disagree during Big 10 football season, but we\u2019ve got a lot in common. We care about one another. We\u2019re willing to show up and do hard, tough work, and we take pride in that work, but we expect to have our freedoms protected.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are the party, as Gov. Shapiro likes to say, of real freedom for Americans,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapiro zeroed in on Project 2025, the presidential transition plan and policy blueprint for a future Republican administration that Democrats have targeted in their ads and remarks for weeks. Trump has distanced himself from the initiative<\/a>, which is led by numerous officials from his administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe is dangerous, he is destructive, and the guardrails are off,\u201d Shapiro said of Trump. \u201cAnd here\u2019s the other thing: He\u2019s told us what he wants to do. Y\u2019all, go crack open that whole Project 2025 thing. Go take a look at what his buddies and all his former staff wrote. \u2026 It\u2019s really scary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapiro also mocked Trump by imitating him<\/a> walking over to a flag and hugging it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen he\u2019s on the stage, he kind of meanders over, he can\u2019t really walk well, and he goes over to the flag and he, like, hugs the flag,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cAnd I love the flag, but it\u2019s a weird thing he does, right? \u2026 While he\u2019s hugging the flag, you know what he\u2019s doing? He\u2019s stripping away our freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since President Joe Biden, 81, dropped out of the race this month, Democrats have ramped up their attacks on Trump\u2019s age. And they\u2019ve also sought to paint Trump, 78, and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, as \u201cweird.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whitmer made a point of criticizing both Trump and Vance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo be clear, Kamala Harris has more experience than the Trump-Vance ticket combined,\u201d she said, adding of Vance: \u201cHe\u2019s really made his values clear lately. He does not see women as equals. He does not want everyone to have a seat at the table. He\u2019s scared of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs Democrats, we want everyone to have a seat at the table,\u201d she said before she pointed to comments in 2021<\/a> in which Vance he criticized Democratic leaders as \u201cchildless cat ladies.\u201d \u201cI mean, even cat lovers and dog lovers alike.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Pennsylvania, a pivotal battleground state, rallygoers said they were reinvigorated by Harris\u2019 ascension to the top of the ticket after Biden\u2019s decision to step aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linda LaVay, 64, a voter from Upper Gwynedd, said it was the first political rally she had attended in her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to know how we\u2019re going to move forward,\u201d she said before Shapiro and Whitmer took the stage. \u201cHow are we going to keep this momentum going?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with Harris being so new atop the ticket, LaVay said, she wanted to hear more about the overall Democratic platform and what policies Harris would advocate. She added that she wanted Democrats to be more open about recent policies to stem the flow of migration across the U.S. border with Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naveen Ithikkat, a voter from Blue Bell, said he and his wife will be able to vote for the first time this fall after they recently obtained U.S. citizenship. Ithikkat said that while they consider themselves to be liberal-leaning, they had been concerned with Biden\u2019s becoming the party\u2019s nominee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt that point, we weren\u2019t too sure whether we would be able to vote for Biden, considering his age,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Harris is a more appealing option, Ithikkat said. So, too, is the possibility that Shapiro, their governor, could be her running mate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we are all Josh Shapiro fans,\u201d Jaycy Ithikkat said. \u201cAnd the fact that he is one of the VP candidates definitely has brought us here to the rally today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shapiro, 51, is a first-term governor<\/a> who enjoys solid approval ratings at home, including among Republicans. Pennsylvania Democrats have pushed for him<\/a> to be on the ticket, though some on the left have expressed uneasiness with the possibility, pointing to his strong condemnation<\/a> of pro-Palestinian protesters, his support of school vouchers<\/a> and his handling of sexual harassment claims against<\/a> a legislative aide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shawn Dougherty, secretary and treasurer of Teamsters Local 107, suggested the concerns about Shapiro as the running mate were overblown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my guy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been with Josh since his career has started. But more importantly, he\u2019s been with us, the workers, since he started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very articulate,\u201d Dougherty added. \u201cHe\u2019s a great orator. He can get any type of message across that\u2019s needed here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AMBLER, Pa. \u2014 Govs. Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer \u2014 both under consideration to be Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 running mate \u2014 held a joint rally Monday in the Philadelphia suburbs where they drew contrasts between the Democrats\u2019 new standard-bearer and former President Donald Trump. Shapiro, of Pennsylvania, and Whitmer, of Michigan, drew a crowd of more than 1,000 that included […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1637,4254,2302,29686],"class_list":["post-30263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-campaign","tag-candidate","tag-harris","tag-running-mate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30265,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30263\/revisions\/30265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}