Pollster Nate Silver says Vice President Harris missed a major chance to pick up voters in the center when she passed over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) as her running mate.
Harris “blew one big opportunity to tack to the center with her selection of [Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D)] rather than Josh Shapiro: that a tiny minority of progressives objected to Shapiro was an argument in Shapiro’s favor, if anything,” Silver wrote in a post on his website.
Shapiro and Walz, alongside Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (D), rose to the top of the “veepstakes” as Harris weighed who to bring on to her fast-tracked bid after President Biden dropped out of the race.
Walz, who snagged viral clips labeling Republican rivals as “weird,” has been looked at as a boost to Harris in reaching the Midwest and the middle class. The pick has also energized progressives, after Walz shifted to the left during his governorship.
But Silver argued that Shapiro, who has faced criticism from progressives, could have been a help to Harris, who the pollster contended is “limited by her own past progressive policy positions.”
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