Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan revealed on Sunday which running mate Vice President Kamala Harris could choose that would make the GOP “scared.”
Harris, who became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee after President Joe Biden quit the race on July 21, has not yet announced who her running mate pick is to take on former President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance, the Republican presidential and vice presidential nominees, respectively.
Since Harris began her bid for the White House, speculation has increased that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro could get the job. Others in contention include Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The vice president is expected to decide who will be her running mate in the coming days.
In a Sunday appearance on CNN‘s State of the Union, when asked by host Dana Bash “who are Republicans most worried about” regarding Harris’ running mate shortlist, Duncan, a Republican, pointed out that Shapiro would make the GOP “scared” citing that Shapiro would help Democrats win Pennsylvania again.
Biden won the state in 2020, flipping it when Trump won in 2016.
“I think Kamala Harris has de-risked her finalists list. There really is no mistake in that list, there is no chance of her doing a JD Vance selection and doing harm to the ticket. So I do think the blocking and tackling of simple math is Pennsylvania. I think Republicans would be scared to see a governor of Pennsylvania almost instantly flip that state to be a loss for Democrats to being a win for Democrats,” Duncan said.
He added: “I think that creates regional creep and you can probably get Michigan to come along and other states, so I think it creates momentum. At the end of the day she doesn’t have a liability on her hands with whoever she picks.”
In response to Duncan’s remarks, Harris’ campaign referred Newsweek via email on Sunday afternoon to Duncan’s previous remarks following Trump’s campaign rally in Atlanta on Saturday.
“If you were able to see through Donald Trump’s incoherence and vindictiveness tonight, you saw a Donald Trump who does not care about uniting this country or speaking to the voters who will decide this election. Millions of Americans are fed up with his grievance-filled campaign focused only on himself. Tonight we heard a particularly unhinged, angry version of the same Donald Trump that Georgia rejected in 2020,” Duncan said.
He added: “Elections are binary choices. As a lifelong conservative Republican, it was not an easy decision for me to endorse Vice President Harris, but I know that she fights for all Americans, right, left, or center, and will stand up for the Constitution.”
Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign via email for comment.
Duncan, a lifelong Republican who had previously said he would be voting for Biden over Trump in November, confirmed his support for Harris on social media and in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s Politically Georgia podcast late last month.
“I’m committed to beating Donald Trump. The only vehicle left for me to do that with is the Democratic Party. If that requires me to vote for, speak for, or endorse Kamala Harris then count me in,” Duncan posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
This comes as Vance has been in the spotlight for past remarks he made. Vance has recently faced criticism for saying the United States is run by “childless cat ladies” during an interview with Fox News in 2021 while running for U.S. Senate, pointing to Harris as an example.
Vance and Trump have continued to defend the remarks amid the backlash.
Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, said in a previous statement to Newsweek, “Once again, the leftwing media have twisted Senator Vance’s words and spun up a false narrative about his position on the issues. The Democrats are in complete disarray with the most unpopular Vice President in history as their party’s nominee. The only childlessness we should be talking about are the childless parents who lost their kids to the murderous thugs and deadly fentanyl coming across Kamala’s southern border.”
Meanwhile, Shapiro, who is viewed as the front-runner, recently renewed vice president speculation after he canceled three fundraisers that were due to take place on New York’s Long Island this weekend.
“The Governor’s trip was planned several weeks ago and included several fundraisers for his own campaign committee,” Manuel Bonder, Shapiro’s press secretary, said in a statement previously emailed to Newsweek. “His schedule has changed and he is no longer traveling to the Hamptons this weekend.”
Despite speculation, Shapiro declined to answer last week whether he was interested in being on the ticket with Harris.
“I’ve said this before; I’ll say it again: The vice president has a very deeply personal decision to make right now—who she wants to run with, who she wants to govern with, and who can be by her side when she has to make the toughest decisions for the American people,” he said, according to CBS News. “I trust that she will make that decision on her own terms when she is ready.”
Update 8/4/24, 4:17 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Harris’ campaign.
