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Ms. Harris is seeking to select a running mate on a highly compressed timeline,
aiming to make her choice by Aug. 7
— a little more than two weeks after she entered the race to replace President Biden on the Democratic ticket.
Besides Mr. Cooper, those known to be under serious consideration include Gov. Josh #Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gov. Tim #Walz of Minnesota, Gov. Andy #Beshear of Kentucky, Senator Mark #Kelly of Arizona and the transportation secretary, Pete #Buttigieg.
The remaining leading candidates are all white men. All except Mr. Buttigieg have a history of electoral success in politically divided states.
Mr. Beshear was elected twice in deep-red Kentucky,
Mr. Walz represented a conservative House district before being elected governor,
Mr. Shapiro won his attorney general race in 2016 when Mr. Trump carried Pennsylvania and
Mr. Kelly has won Arizona twice in the last four years.
Mr. Shapiro on Monday campaigned for Ms. Harris in the Philadelphia suburbs with Gov. Gretchen #Whitmer of Michigan, who may have been a vice-presidential contender had she not taken herself out of the running last week.
Two people with knowledge of the vice-presidential vetting process said
the list had been narrowed to five,
though the Harris campaign has vetted a dozen potential running mates.
They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the private deliberations.
The only other vice-presidential contender known to have withdrawn from the process is Adm. William H. #McRaven, the former commander of the United States Special Operations Command, who publicly took himself out of consideration last week.
Ms. Harris’s vetting process began last week and is expected to run through this weekend.
She has yet to meet in person with any of the potential running mates.
The initial candidate interviews with members of her campaign staff have begun over video calls.
Several of those contenders have been campaigning publicly
— and thus auditioning
— for Ms. Harris in recent days.
Mr. Buttigieg appeared on Fox News over the weekend and is set to appear on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart on Monday night.
Mr. Walz has been a regular on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News
— and even had a profile in the magazine Runner’s World.
Mr. Beshear campaigned in Georgia.
The New York Times · Roy Cooper Withdraws From Kamala Harris VP Sweepstakes
Democratic donors funding an effort to vet potential VP candidates
Major Democratic donors are funding a preliminary #vetting #process for potential vice-presidential nominees should President Biden exit the race,
according to four people familiar with the process,
suggesting that influential figures in the party are growing increasingly restless and concerned about the time remaining to mount a national campaign.
In recent days, people involved in the effort have contacted the teams of top Democratic figures,
including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh #Shapiro and Kentucky Gov. Andy #Beshear, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive effort.
The donors are also interested in vetting North Carolina Gov. Roy #Cooper, Michigan Gov. Gretchen #Whitmer and Arizona Sen. Mark #Kelly.
It is unclear whether the subjects of the vetting are participating in the effort, which is independent of the Biden campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
A vetting process typically includes a deep review of a potential candidate’s governing record, public statements, personal finances and other personal and private activities
to help decision-makers weigh the potential risks of each selection, but the specifics of this particular effort are not known.
The Biden campaign and a spokesperson for Shapiro declined to comment. Spokespeople for Beshear and Whitmer did not respond to requests for comment.
A person familiar with Kelly’s political operation was unaware of outreach from outside donors involving any sort of vetting for the Democratic ticket. (With control of the Senate at risk, no Democratic Senator would be chosen)
Vetting potential vice-presidential candidates usually takes months,
so the group of donors, who have not been identified,
decided to begin that process earlier this month.
If Biden drops out, many Democrats think Vice President Harris would become the front-runner to replace him,
and should she secure the nomination, she would have to select a running mate under a compressed timeline (likely by August 1st) to ensure the Democratic ticket meets all state ballot deadlines.
The vice president has repeatedly said she fully supports Biden as the party’s nominee.
“I’m testifying as a first hand witness,” she told an audience in Massachusetts Saturday.
“With every decision [Biden] makes in the Oval Office, I’m telling you he thinks about how it will impact everyday working Americans.”
One potential pitfall of the donor-run process is that its sponsors could be barred from directly coordinating with the Democratic presidential campaign, under election laws designed to ensure campaigns’ independence.
That means the donors would likely have to share their findings in a public manner in order for the campaign to benefit from them. Yet such vetting is usually guided by strict confidentiality, in part to ensure the privacy of the individuals involved.
It is not clear how the donors might navigate that obstacle.
In recent weeks, Harris has appeared with many of the Democrats who are being viewed as potential running mates should she take over the top of the ticket.
A day after the debate, Harris was in Nevada with Kelly. She has twice appeared at campaign events in North Carolina with Cooper, and she campaigned with Shapiro last weekend in Pennsylvania.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/20/democrat-donors-fund-vp-vetting-push/
The Washington Post · Democratic donors funding an effort to vet potential VP candidates
With a split government, Governor #Gretchen #Whitmer has used her veto power since 2019
to protect
voting rights, quality K-12 education, and reproductive rights.
In 2022, Governor Whitmer will share the ballot with critical state House and Senate races that will make it possible for Democrats to win control of the legislature.
The ballot will also have several crucial U.S. House races for Democrats to maintain the majority.
Winning #Michigan
Our primary objectives in Michigan are to 
re-elect Governor Gretchen Whitmer, flip the state legislature, and win four competitive congressional elections in MI-03, MI-07, MI-08, and MI-10.
swingleft.orgFind your Swing District!Help win the midterms in MI.
Continued thread
Every year, some of the richest and most powerful leaders in business, media and politics touch down in Sun Valley, Idaho,
for a private confab hosted by New York investment bank Allen & Company.
The vibe is trail-dad chic — think puffy Patagonia vests and Apple watches and stealth-wealth cashmere pullovers. Imagine the resort from Dirty Dancing but replace all the beautiful young dancers with mostly older White men carrying Wall Street Journals under their arms and grumbling about regulatory overreach.
The summit’s agenda and lecture topics are kept secret, and reporters who attend generally have to stay off the record so that the one-percenters can mingle and speak freely as they wander the mountain resort,
gossiping about industry and, occasionally, forging historic multibillion-dollar deals.
Sun Valley is widely believed to be the place where Jeff #Bezos decided to buy The Washington Post, and the site of the meet-cute between Comcast and NBC Universal.
(Warren #Buffett, who is notably absent from this year’s guest list, once referred to Sun Valley dealmaking as ABWA, or “acquisitions by walking around.”)
This year’s parade of private jets is expected to touch down Tuesday, as the Idaho Mountain Express reported last month, bringing together dozens of power brokers
— including AI kingpin Sam #Altman; Disney CEO Bob #Iger and a coterie of his potential successors; plus all of the usual suspects like Apple’s Tim #Cook, Meta’s Mark #Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar #Pichai, media moguls Rupert #Murdoch and #Oprah Winfrey and many others, including David #Zaslav, the CEO of CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, according to Bloomberg and Variety.
(A spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed Zaslav would attend.)
There are also some notably absent names from the guest list this year.
There’s Buffett, who is normally a fixture at the event but who is nearly 94 and, perhaps, happy to let his spryer successor, 62-year-old Greg #Abel, handle the high-altitude trekking and chit-chattery. Less likely but still half-seriously rumored is that Buffett is avoiding the shindig after the press last year picked up on his wife, Astrid, complaining about having to pay $4 for a cup of coffee.
Also absent this year is Elon #Musk, who might seem like a shoo-in until you imagine him winding up on a rafting trip with a bunch of CEOs whom he publicly urged,
less than a year ago, to go f— themselves.
While we expect plenty of chatter about artificial intelligence, the Succession-level drama about Iger’s succession plan, and the head-spinning negotiations that led to the Paramount-Skydance merger, there is one giant elephant — or donkey — in the room this year.
Questions about President Joe #Biden’s ability to campaign have wealthy donors and Democratic officials in a tizzy.
And it would be hard to imagine that a gaggle of elite media moguls would sit around the fire with their s’mores and bourbon and not speculate about potential replacements on the 2024 ballot.
That could make the week particularly important for three governors on the guest list this year: Gretchen #Whitmer, Josh #Shapiro and Wes #Moore, all of whom have been floated as potential Biden replacements, even as the president forcefully denies that he’s contemplating dropping out.
The political intrigue is, well, intriguing. But it’s also a timely reminder to zoom out and consider just how powerful the US has let its billionaire class become, and how events like Sun Valley amplify the inequities in America that are so systemic we hardly bat an eye at them.
As the writer Hamilton Nolan wrote in 2021, Sun Valley is a place where “the billionaires are feted by the mere millionaires; the millionaires drum up enough deals to allow them to buy their third and fourth homes …
This is the wondrous model of American capitalism in action
— a tiny handful of wealthy people eat cake, and an entire nation gathers downstream, hoping to snatch up a few falling crumbs.”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/09/business/sun-valley-summer-camp-billionaires-nightcap/index.html
The Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference has been held annually, the week after July 4, for decades.
Employees at the nearby Friedman Memorial Airport reportedly refer to the conference as “the annual fly-in event”
while others jokingly call it “summer camp for billionaires.”
Most of the week’s agenda is secret and the reporters present are told to stay off-the-record,
but it is rumored that Sun Valley was the origin of several high profile mergers and Jeff Bezos’ decision to buy the Washington Post.
Among the names reportedly present at this year’s conference are Disney CEO Bob #Iger, Paramount Chair Shari #Redstone, and OpenAI CEO Sam #Altman.
Several prominent politicians, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen #Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh #Shapiro, and Maryland Gov. Wes #Moore also scored invites to the event, according to Variety.
It’s challenging to determine the exact number of private planes flying into the Idaho airport, due to recent changes in Federal Aviation Administration policy that allow for jet owners to conceal their flight data from tracking websites.
Still, the flight-tracking website FlightAware shows more than a hundred non-concealed flights landing in Sun Valley.
https://qz.com/sun-valley-idaho-summer-camp-for-billionaires-1851585079
Quartz · 'Summer camp for billionaires' begins in Sun Valley with the arrival of 165 private jets