Column: Chatter about Josh Shapiro as Harris’ running mate veers into antisemitism
We know Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee, has set an Aug. 7 deadline to announce a running mate. The question of whom she should pick dominates conversations among donors and political panels on TV. However, the starting point ought to be “what does she need to win?”
Opinion Columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports and navigating life in America.
The very premise of this question points out the glaring difference between the two parties heading into November. While mocking Sen. J.D. Vance is entertaining, the reality is that he’s a sideshow. If 34 felony convictions didn’t hurt Trump in the polls, his vice presidential selection ultimately won’t make a difference to voters either.
The stakes feel higher for Harris, as her selection will also reveal what the campaign believes she needs to do to win — to convince the movable middle to trust her.
Black women receive backlash for dominant leadership styles. By choosing to project warmth, the vice president strategically avoids such reactions.
As I’ve written in the past, I believe Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona should be the leading choice, primarily for his military experience. Sources have told me she is considering a governor, such as Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, for their executive experience. And there are electoral college factors to consider: Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro could potentially bring 19 electoral votes, if adding him to the ticket won over his home state — more than would presumably come with any other contender routinely mentioned.
What the Harris campaign believes she needs to win is a complicated question.
But one fight that the campaign doesn’t need for victory is pretty clear, and it comes up in response to Shapiro’s name.
“Every potential nominee for Vice President is pro-Israel,” Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) posted on social media in response to a post that contained “#genocideJosh.” “Yet only one, Josh Shapiro, has been singled out by a far-left smear campaign.… The reason he is treated differently from the rest? Antisemitism.”
She is trailing Donald Trump in most polls days after President Biden endorsed her, but she has been underestimated by Republicans and Democrats alike.
Torres is not wrong. When other contenders’ names come up, their position on the war in Gaza is rarely the first topic discussed. And the fact that Shapiro is Jewish would seem to be a major reason his stance on the war is prominent in detractors’ minds.
It’s not as though the governor of Pennsylvania has had a big role in U.S. foreign policy, not even as much as any senator would have had. And yet the concerns over a “protest vote” mostly shadow him — the fear that a faction of Democratic voters would stay home on election day or would cast a symbolic vote for some write-in candidate, just to avoid endorsing a Harris-Shapiro ticket that is linked to the war in Gaza. Remember the Michigan Democratic primary? More than 100,000 voted “uncommitted” in response to the Biden administration’s handling of the Gaza war.
For her part, Harris was not shy in calling out the atrocities directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel last week while also calling for a cease-fire. It is not radical to oppose the war or believe that Israel has largely been in the wrong as it has devastated Gaza. Yet there is an extremist wing of the party that goes further, pushing the notion that Shapiro should not be the vice president simply because he is Jewish. This is obviously nonsensical and antisemitic, and this kind of hateful thinking seems destined to smear Harris as well, because her husband, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, is Jewish.
For Trump, hurling disparaging remarks and slurs at an opponent is an essential messaging tool. When rioters chanted “Jews will not replace us” in the streets of Charlottesville, Va., back in 2017, he called the white supremacists “fine people.” The incident inspired President Biden to run for the White House, and in 2020 he earned more votes than any other candidate in our nation’s history.
However, four years later, some progressives are being called out for antisemitism — a reminder that Republicans haven’t cornered the market on prejudice. You know, in case the flashes of antisemitism on our college campuses weren’t enough of a hint.
Democratic leadership should not turn a blind eye to this. I’m glad Torres didn’t. Wondering whether the Gaza war could affect voter turnout is a fair question, given the number of protest votes registered during the primary and how tight this race is expected to be. By all means, look closely at the records of vice presidential contenders (Jewish or not) to see where they stand on the Gaza war.
But singling out Shapiro because he is Jewish is not right and is not even good politics. It’s simply acquiescing to antisemitism. Not unlike when the Senate decided to start having Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominees after a Jewish man, Louis Brandeis, was nominated. Or when Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, two Jewish American sprinters, were replaced on the U.S. 4x100-meter relay team at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
Harris’ choice of a running mate will delight some supporters and bother others. Whomever she chooses, antisemitism has no place in the discussion.
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