Vice President Kamala Harris’s vice presidential contenders are using attacks on Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), former President Donald Trump‘s running mate, to distinguish themselves from their competition.
Harris’s running mate spot is a coveted one: As many as seven high-profile politicians have been rumored to be on her short list. With Vance already set as their would-be direct competition, a few potential running mates have taken shots at him.
Here are a few of those.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg
The Biden administration official seized on past comments made by Vance that the then-Senate candidate didn’t understand why Democrats were turning over their future to people who didn’t have children. Mentioning Harris and Buttigieg by name, Vance said, “The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children.”
“The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heartbreaking setback in our adoption journey,” Buttigieg said on CNN. “He couldn’t have known that, but maybe that’s why you shouldn’t be talking about other people’s children.”
Buttigieg then endorsed Democrats over Republicans because the former cares about climate change more, an issue directly relevant to the youth’s future.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ)
Border state Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) slammed Vance very soon after he was chosen as Trump’s vice president but before President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race. His target: Vance’s abortion record.
Kelly, who could be a strong pick for Harris if she wants to shore up support in Arizona and Nevada, claimed Vance wants “a total abortion ban” and didn’t support abortion exceptions for rape and incest.
“When is it wrong for a woman who has been raped to want to terminate a pregnancy,” he said. “He said these were just inconveniences … an inconvenience is when you get stuck in traffic on your way home from work.”
Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY)
Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) has been a popular pick among those who wish to have Harris paired with a Southern state governor, and he’s acknowledged that he’d “at least listen” if he was called to be her running mate.
And right after that statement, Beshear launched into an assault of Vance prompted by his book, in which people have said Vance called the people of Appalachia “uniquely lazy.”
“J.D. Vance ain’t from here, and the nerve he has to call the people of eastern Kentucky ‘lazy,’” Beshear said.
“These are the hardworking coal miners who powered the industrial revolution, [and] that created the strongest middle class the world has ever seen, powered us through two world wars,” he said. “We should be thanking them, not calling them lazy.”
Beshear also could be an interesting contrast to Vance, who some have claimed will energize Appalachia in Trump’s presidential bid.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN)
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who could offer some value to Harris as a somewhat popular Midwestern governor in a race that will draw on the “blue wall” states significantly, also wasted no time blasting Vance over any claims he’s made over “small town America.”
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“People like J.D. Vance know nothing about small-town America. … He gets it all wrong. It’s not about hate,” he said.
Walz called Trump and Vance “robber barons who gutted the midwest” and championed Biden-Harris-supported initiatives like labor unions and built infrastructure. Another point that Walz hit is that Vance’s story “is not who people really are,” given Trump’s running mate went from poor beginnings to Yale Law School. “That message doesn’t resonate,” he said.
