WATCH: Expert Weighs Pros And Cons Of Top Harris VP Contenders

3 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," Iowa State University Profressor Dr. Kelly Winfrey spoke about VP Kamala Harris’ potential running mates.

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Transcript

00:00You threw out a name that I think is really important to watch, which is Pete Buttigieg.

00:05There's so much talk about VP candidates for the VP.

00:10And I think you and I live in Iowa.

00:13We saw Pete Buttigieg, you know, people caucus for him and whatnot.

00:17And it was kind of strange how he was polling pretty far ahead.

00:21And then I remember being in the newsroom when it happened that we were going to have

00:25this big convention downtown Des Moines where a bunch of candidates could talk and he was

00:29supposed to speak in just before the convention.

00:32He dropped out.

00:33He announced he dropped out.

00:34And it was kind of wild because he was already pulling for our head.

00:36So we kind of all assumed that had to do with maybe campaign funds, wasn't making enough

00:40money to make it to the other states.

00:42So from that experience, I think we've watched.

00:45There is interest in Pete Buttigieg in an official office of some capacity.

00:50Now he has not necessarily been elected.

00:52He is in Department of Transportation right now, and that was selected by Biden.

00:57But what are his chances?

00:59Who are you looking at at VP candidates here?

01:02Because there's kind of a roster of people.

01:04Yeah.

01:05You know, Pete Buttigieg is on a lot of people's tongue for that possible nomination as vice

01:12president.

01:13Buttigieg is a great speaker.

01:14He is very relatable.

01:17He's younger.

01:18He and his partner are great on social media, great on media.

01:24I think that Buttigieg could be a really good pick for really engaging people and getting

01:29energy up, especially younger voters.

01:32The downside, like you said, is that he hasn't held a national federal level elected position.

01:38You know, he was known as Mayor Pete when he was running for the vice presidency.

01:42So there's limited experience in that sense, though he has had to deal with a lot of things

01:47as secretary of transportation, airline outages, train derailments, all sort of stuff that

01:53he's had to handle and has has, I would say, handled pretty well.

01:58He's also coming from Indiana.

01:59He's coming from that kind of Rust Belt area and maybe could appeal to some of those voters

02:04in key states.

02:05I would say, though, you know, in modern elections, we haven't really selected vice presidential

02:13nominees based on where they're from or winning a state because kind of we're we've just got

02:19a handful of swing states at this point.

02:22Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro has is pretty popular in Pennsylvania, obviously.

02:28If you remember back to 2020, Pennsylvania was one of those states that we were waiting

02:32to hear a final decision on.

02:34So if someone like him could bring bring a state like Pennsylvania firmly into the Democratic

02:40column, that would be a huge win.

02:42Mark Kelly in Arizona is another one I've heard people mention.

02:46You know, I question whether or not we want to, you know, whether the Democrats would

02:51want to put him out of the Senate.

02:55You know, that's that's a very contested Senate seat.

02:58So I don't know how great of a pick he would be, but I know they're vetting him.

03:03I think they just released a short list earlier today of some folks that they had.

03:09The Harris campaign had solicited materials from to start the vetting process.

03:14And so he was one of those as well.

03:16And then we have the Kentucky governor, someone else, though, I don't think we're going to

03:20turn Kentucky blue.

03:22So, you know, he's a very he's a younger, very dynamic speaker, but not probably not

03:27going to deliver that home state.

03:29But maybe he could appeal to some white working class voters in the middle of the country.

WATCH: Expert Weighs Pros And Cons Of Top Harris VP Contenders

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