PHILADELPHIA – Gabrielle Giffords, the former Democratic congresswoman who was grievously wounded in a 2011 shooting in her Arizona district, took to the campaign trail Thursday for Vice President Kamala Harris, as Harris' nascent presidential campaign gets off the ground and a parallel campaign to be Harris' running mate takes shape.
Giffords, speaking at the Salt & Light church in swing-state Pennsylvania, met with community activists in a predominantly Black section of Philadelphia hit by gun violence recently, including one over the weekend in which three people were killed and at least six others were wounded.
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The event had long been planned, Giffords aides said, well before Giffords' husband, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro entered the conversation to be Harris' running mate, now that President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed Harris.
Giffords spoke briefly about her long recovery from the shooting in 2011, which killed six people during a meeting with constituents at a Tucson grocery store. Harris' other surrogates, including Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton, framed the November presidential contest as a choice between Harris, who would sign a ban on assault weapons, and more gun violence under Republican Donald Trump, who gun-rights groups back.
“We are overwhelmed with violence all across America from rural Pennsylvania to inner city neighborhoods like where we are today," McClinton said. "We as voters can make a decision on having a more violent United States or safer communities in every part of America.”
McClinton — a Shapiro ally in the Pennsylvania statehouse who has rooted on social media for him to join Harris' ticket — and Giffords batted away questions about the potential that Kelly or Shapiro could be Harris' pick.
Asked whether she was thinking about becoming the second lady, Giffords said, “later, later.” For her part, McClinton said “I'm not making those decisions,” but then put in a plug for Shapiro as a "people's champion when it comes to issues around public safety" while calling Kelly someone who “we all hold in high regard.”
Harris is beginning to vet about a dozen people for the vice presidential nomination, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential process.
The Giffords event in Philadelphia on Thursday — just a few miles from Shapiro's home in neighboring Montgomery County — had long been planned, Giffords aides said.
Still, it won't be the last Harris campaign event where her vice presidential pick is a prominent subject, or where potential vice presidential picks campaign for Harris in a state both sides have said they must win in November.
On Monday, Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were scheduled to headline a campaign rally for Harris in suburban Philadelphia, while in North Carolina on Thursday, Gov. Roy Cooper talked about Harris' many visits as vice president to the swing state won by Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
Cooper and Whitmer are also under consideration for joining the ticket.
Cooper, speaking in downtown Raleigh, said that “there are a lot of good people” Harris could choose as her running mate, but he wouldn’t address directly his prospects to join her ticket.
“There are a lot of people that she can choose. She’s going to make the right choice,” Cooper said after listing why he backed Harris for president. “I just want her to choose the person that gives her the best chance to win. And there’ll be a lot of factors that go into that,” Cooper added.
Cooper took a swipe at Trump’s vice presidential pick in Ohio Sen. JD Vance, saying: “It’s pretty clear that Donald Trump chose someone in his own image — sort of a Mini-Me” — a reference to a smaller clone of “Dr. Evil” in the “Austin Powers” film franchise.
Another leading contender, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, deflected questions at his regular news conference at the state Capitol on Thursday about how Harris was choosing a running mate, but Beshear spoke more freely about the presidential campaign ahead than he usually does. He started with a statement saying he was honored to be considered for the ticket, but asked later if he thought Trump was a threat to democracy, he said: “Yes, I do.”
Beshear said he would do everything he could to get Harris elected, regardless of whether he's her running mate.
“I think what’s needed right now is a ticket that not only can win but again can govern and can govern in a way that’s for everyone," he said. “We can’t keep going with this everything being red or blue or Democrat or Republican. Everything right now from the car you buy to the beer you drink, somebody tries to make partisan and say you have to pick a team.”
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Associated Press reporters Gary D. Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Kentucky, contributed to this report.