The Democratic Party began a virtual call Thursday to formally nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as its candidate to succeed the commander in chief. Harris is expected to announce her vice presidential candidate soon.
Speculation about her running mate is growing. States Newsroom, Washington, DC, office I recently spoke with political pundits who suspect Harris is looking for someone outside of Washington to connect with voters.
According to media reports, she has narrowed her choices to four male governors and a U.S. senator — all white — who represent a mix of competitive and solidly left-leaning states: Governors Andy Beshear of Kentucky, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona.
All five men have criticized the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down federal abortion laws and have supported policies to protect or expand reproductive rights in the two years since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. (The governors are also members Reproductive Freedom Alliance(a nonpartisan coalition of leaders committed to defending abortion rights and reproductive health in the wake of the Dobbs case).
Here’s what potential Vice President Harris has said — and done — about reproductive rights:
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear
As a Democratic governor in a conservative state, Beshear pushed lawmakers to add exemptions for rape and incest to abortion laws. The commonwealth passed a triggering law and a near-total abortion ban after losing Roe v. Wade in June 2022. During his reelection campaign last year, Beshear ran ads featuring Hadley Duvall highlighting the lack of relief for sexual assault victims under the bans, Kentucky Lighthouse reported. Duvall was raped and impregnated by her stepfather when she was 12. pressure The ads show Beshear’s opponent, former Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, has said that if elected governor of Kentucky, he would sign legislation adding exceptions to the ban on rape and incest.
Beshear he won 52% of the vote in November 2022 and thanked Duvall in his victory speech, according to lantern“What a brave, courageous young woman,” Beshear said. “We believe she and everyone else should have a choice, and the legislature should make that change as soon as it comes.” In April Senate GOP Blocks Vote on legislation that would solve this problem.
Arizona State Senator Mark Kelly
A former astronaut and Navy captain, Kelly has served since 2020 and was re-elected in 2022. He voted in favor Women’s Health Protection Act legislation in May 2022 that would codify federal abortion law. “We need to codify Roe at the federal level,” Kelly said in May, according to Arizona Mirror“I think that’s really the way forward.” Ahead of the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Kelly illuminated like abortion bans have affected the full scope of reproductive health care and prompted some doctors to flee Arizona, where a 15-week ban is in place.
Kelly has also supported IVF protections in Congress. In June, he and his wife, Gabby Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived the 2011 assassination attempt, wrote in an essay for People magazine about their fertility struggles. Two days after Giffords was shot, the couple was scheduled to have an embryo implanted. They wrote, “Our dream of having a child together has been taken away by a gunman. Americans’ dreams of having a child together may be taken away by politicians.”
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker
Pritzker leads a state that has become a Midwest abortion hotspot. Illinois borders Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri — all of which have abortion bans — and Iowa, which passed a six-week ban this week. He recently signed a bill that will require insurers to cover postpartum care — doulas, midwives, lactation consultants — for up to a year after giving birth, Illinois Capitol News reported. law Abortion subsidies and franchises were also abolished.
He signed budget in June, which includes more than $23 million for a range of maternal health programs that will invest in community providers, home health programs and free diapers. “There is no freedom of choice without access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care for women and new mothers,” Pritzker said he said in February, announcing the initiative.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro
A former state attorney general, Shapiro was elected governor in November 2022. Last month, Capital of Pennsylvania-Star announced he would not defend a ban on using Medicaid funds for abortion. “Pennsylvania’s constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex — and as our Supreme Court ruled earlier this year, the state’s ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion services is sex discrimination,” Shapiro said in a statement.
He Completed state agreement with Real Alternatives, a group that funds anti-abortion pregnancy centers, in December 2023, the Capital Star reported. The organization received more than $30 million in state funding during the period 2012 and 2017. Last year, Shapiro also signed a bill improve monitoring of pregnancy-related deaths. He stands face to face criticism because his office paid $295,000 to settle a sexual harassment complaint filed by a female employee against his former Cabinet secretary.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz
Even though a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling guaranteed the right to abortion in Minnesota, Walz signed a bill that expanded access in the state. The last yearLawmakers abolished the 24-hour waiting period for abortions, ended broad reporting of abortions and removed the requirement that abortions be performed in hospitals.
In January 2023, he signed the Reproductive Rights Protection Act, which the right to reproductive health care and abortion has been codified without any restrictions or exceptions, The Minnesota Reformer reported. “The message we’re sending to Minnesotans today is very clear. Your rights are protected in this state. You have the right to make your own decisions about your health, your family and your life,” Walz said at the bill-signing ceremony.
