Here Are The Leading Contenders To Run For The Democrats In The US Presidential Election

There are now more candidates vying to be the Democratic nominee in November as a result of Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the party’s presidential candidacy.

Although several well-known Democrats swiftly embraced Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and threw their support behind her, it remains uncertain how easy it will be for her to win the party’s nomination.

Some of the front-runners for a position on the Democratic ticket are as follows:

• ⁠Kamala Harris

Ms. Harris, a native of Oakland, California, frequently discusses her upbringing with parents who were actively engaged in the civil rights struggle and cites the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall as an inspiration. Her mother, a cancer doctor, and father, an economist, first met as doctoral students at the University of California, Berkeley.

She was dubbed a “fearless fighter for the little guy” by Mr. Biden. Ms. Harris is the first person of color to hold the position of vice president in the history of the country. She is a black woman of South Asian heritage.

She is the first alumna of a historically black college or university to hold the office of president or vice president. She attended Howard University. After being elected California’s attorney general twice, she was elected to the US Senate in 2016. She emphasized her battles with large banks during the housing crisis, for-profit universities that fleeced students of their money, and environmental miscreants.

She has long advocated for a different approach to non-violent offenses that places an emphasis on rehabilitation rather than harsh, uniform punishment and has spoken out for criminal justice reform for years. Mr. Biden wanted Ms. Harris to take on some of the most difficult responsibilities his government had encountered as vice president, such as border security.

In her role as the US Senate’s presiding officer, she has broken records in the number of votes she has cast in favor of legislation supported by Democrats, who are fighting for a slender majority in both chambers of Congress in the current elections. Harris is married to 59-year-old Douglas Emhoff, a lawyer in Los Angeles.

• JB Pritzker

The Illinois governor, the richest politician holding office in the US, is an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, a former private equity investor and philanthropist.

His net worth of $3.4 billion (€3.1 billion) puts him at No. 250 on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.

The 59-year-old won the nomination for governor in 2018, beating a crowded Democratic field. He beat incumbent Republican governor Bruce Rauner and inherited mountains of state debt, unpaid bills, and ratings by Wall Street credit houses just above junk status because of Mr Rauner’s two-year feud with legislative Democrats that resulted in the state going without a budget plan.

Working with Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate, Mr Pritzker has boasted balanced budgets and paid down billions of dollars in debt, prompting multiple credit upgrades. He has also overseen increased education funding, the centralization of early childhood services, and new laws to make health insurance more comprehensive, accessible, and affordable.

After receiving generally high marks for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he defeated a Trump-endorsed Maga Republican with 55 percent of the vote, becoming the first Illinois governor to be elected to a second term in 16 years. He delivered a victory speech that sounded like it came from a national candidate, denouncing Mr Trump and asking, “Are you ready to fight?”

Even before his re-election, when there was speculation Mr. Biden might not seek a second term, Mr. Pritzker was criticized for saying he was happy being governor while traveling to the early primary state of New Hampshire and campaigning for or funding Democratic candidates nationally. He has continued to boost his coast-to-coast profile by bankrolling a political organization called Think Big America which aims to protect abortion rights, and has supported state constitutional amendments to strengthen protections in Ohio, Arizona, and Nevada.

– Gretchen Whitmer

The Michigan governor has rapidly risen in prominence within the Democratic Party since winning the 2018 gubernatorial election after serving for a decade and a half in the state legislature.

Her national profile grew significantly during the final years of Mr Trump’s presidency when she emerged as one of the Democratic Party’s most effective voices opposing the then-president. She delivered the Democratic response to Mr Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address and frequently clashed with him over how the federal government handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Near the end of 2020, the FBI uncovered a plot to kidnap her, which led to nine men being convicted by jury or pleading guilty.

In her 2022 re-election campaign, Ms Whitmer focused on reproductive rights, resulting in a double-digit victory and passage of a voter-approved measure codifying abortion rights in the state. Her party also flipped both chambers of the state legislature, securing a Democratic triple for the first time in nearly four decades.

The massive Democratic victories in a swing state that Mr. Trump won in the 2016 presidential election positioned Ms. Whitmer as a leading advocate for reproductive freedom and a strong contender for a future presidential nomination.

Ms. Whitmer — who was one of the top surrogates for Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign — has long deflected questions about whether she has an interest in higher office, telling the Associated Press earlier this month that she would not step in as a candidate this year if Mr. Biden were to step aside.

But the 52-year-old has been working to boost her national profile. She met Mr Biden in 2020 as he considered who to select as a running mate and she is on a national press tour for her new memoir. She has also set up a national political action committee that has raised millions this election cycle.

– Gavin Newsom

The California governor is a native of San Francisco who got involved in politics by volunteering for Willie Brown’s 1995 campaign for mayor. Two years later, Mr Brown appointed Mr Newsom to a vacant seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, where he was later elected and re-elected.

Mr. Newsom then became mayor himself and received national attention in 2004 when he directed the San Francisco clerk to issue marriage licenses to same-s*x couples.

He was elected lieutenant governor in 2010 and pushed a progressive agenda when he successfully ran for governor eight years later. Now in his second term, he says he is “standing up for California values — from civil rights to immigration, environmental protection, access to quality schools at all levels, and justice”, according to his official bio.

Mr Newsom, 56, has maintained a high national profile this year, challenging Republican presidential candidates in public appearances despite not being a candidate himself. He has been one of Mr Biden’s staunchest defenders even as criticism mounted after the president’s faltering debate performance. During an early July stop in New Hampshire on behalf of the president, Mr Newsom said: “He’s going to be our nominee.”

The governor was a baseball star at Santa Clara University. After graduating, he worked briefly in sales before starting a retail wine shop that grew into the PlumpJack Group, which includes restaurants, resorts, and vineyards throughout California.

He is married to Jennifer Siebel Newsom. They have four children.

– Josh Shapiro

The Pennsylvania governor, long seen as a rising political star in the state, is halfway through his second year as governor after easily winning his last election by trouncing a far-right, Trump-endorsed candidate in the premier presidential battleground.

Mr. Shapiro, 51, has been a surrogate for Mr. Biden, backing the president in appearances on cable networks, and has years of experience making Mr Trump the focus of his attacks, first as state attorney general and now as governor.

If he joins a Democratic ticket, Mr Shapiro would become the first presidential nominee of Jewish heritage or the second vice presidential nominee of that background, after former Democratic senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in 2000.

Mr Shapiro has won three state-wide races — two as attorney general and one as governor — with a tightly scripted, disciplined campaign style, offering voters a lower-key alternative to the brash political star, US senator John Fetterman.

As governor, Mr. Shapiro has begun to shed a buttoned-down public demeanor and become more confident and plain-spoken. In one recent MSNBC appearance, he said Mr. Trump should “quit whining” and stop “shit-talking America”.

Mr Shapiro has aggressively confronted what he viewed as antisemitism cropping up from pro-Palestinian demonstrations and has professed solidarity with Israel in its drive to eliminate Hamas.

He is a staunch proponent of abortion rights in Pennsylvania and routinely touts his victories in court against Mr Trump, including beating challenges to the 2020 election results.

He has also positioned himself as a moderate on energy issues in the nation’s number two natural gas state and plays up the need for bipartisanship in the politically divided state government.

– Roy Cooper

The North Carolina governor has won six state-wide general elections over two decades in a state where Republicans routinely prevail in similar federal races and also control the legislature.

Mr Cooper, 67, has received strong job approval ratings as governor, benefitting from a booming state economy, for which his administration takes credit. He also portrays himself as a fighter for public education and abortion rights.

While Mr Cooper finally persuaded Republican legislators last year to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, other efforts have been thwarted by a General Assembly with veto-proof majorities which have eroded his formal powers.

A native of small-town Nash County, about 50 miles east of Raleigh, Mr Cooper was his high school quarterback and head of the Young Democrats at the University of North Carolina, where he obtained his undergraduate and law degrees. Coop, as he was known to friends, came home and worked at his father’s law firm.

He upset the Democratic incumbent in a 1986 state House primary race and was elected to the General Assembly. He served 14 years there and later became the Senate majority leader.

Mr Cooper was elected attorney general in 2000, a position he held for 16 years. In that post, he is best known nationally for declaring three former Duke University lacrosse players innocent after they were wrongly accused of s*xual assault by an escort service dancer.

He unseated another incumbent in 2016, this time Republican governor Pat McCrory by roughly 10,000 votes. A top campaign issue was the “bathroom bill” Mr McCrory signed requiring transgender people to use public toilets that corresponded with the s*x on their birth certificates. As governor, Mr Cooper quickly reached an agreement with legislators to partially repeal the law.

His time as governor was also marked by restricting business and school activity during the Covid-19 pandemic. He won re-election in 2020 by 4.5 percentage points, even as Mr Trump won the state’s electoral votes.

Cooper and his wife Kristin have three grown daughters.

– Andy Beshear

The Kentucky governor secured his reputation as a rising Democratic star by beating Trump-endorsed Republicans in his bright red state.

He displayed a disciplined, tenacious style in winning re-election last year, defeating then-attorney general Daniel Cameron. The governor has urged Democrats to follow his winning formula by focusing on the everyday concerns of Americans, from good-paying jobs to quality education and health care.

Mr Beshear supports abortion rights, but in Kentucky has tailored his message to push back against what he calls an extreme ban that lacks exceptions for rape and incest victims.

The governor won widespread praise for his empathy and attention to detail in guiding the Bluegrass State through the COVID-19 pandemic and leading the response to tornadoes and flooding that caused massive damage. He honed his speaking skills by holding regular news conferences that often lasted an hour or so.

Mr Beshear has presided over record-setting economic growth in Kentucky, and typically begins his briefings by touting the state’s latest economic wins. He frequently mentions his Christian faith and how it guides his policymaking.

A lawyer by trade, Mr Beshear won election as state attorney general in 2015. He then unseated Trump-backed Republican incumbent Matt Bevin to first win the governorship in 2019.

Mr Beshear entered politics with a strong pedigree as the son of former two-term governor Steve Beshear, but the son has faced tougher political obstacles, dealing with an entirely Republican-controlled legislature and Republican lawmakers have stymied some of his priorities. One of them is a state-funded preschool for every Kentucky four-year-old.

— Mark Kelly

The US senator for Arizona leveraged his career as an astronaut to build a brand as a moderate in a state that long supported Republicans.

In his two campaigns — the first in 2020 to finish the late Republican senator John McCain’s last term, and the second two years later for a full term — Mr Kelly has earned more votes than any other Democrat on the ballot. He outpolled Mr Biden, who narrowly won Arizona, by 2 percentage points in 2020.

Mr Kelly’s first turn in the national political spotlight came through tragedy. His wife, then-US representative Gabrielle Giffords, was shot in the head while meeting constituents outside a store in Tucson, a shooting that left six people dead and spawned an early reckoning with political violence and partisan rancor.

Ms Giffords’ improbable survival made her a national inspiration but snuffed out a promising political career of her own. She and Mr. Kelly went on to found a gun-control advocacy group, and she has been a powerful surrogate as Mr. Kelly has taken her place in politics.

In the Senate, he has focused on national security and the military as well as the drought plaguing the US West. He was instrumental in crafting a bill signed by Mr Biden to boost US semiconductor manufacturing.

Mr Kelly was a Navy test pilot and flew 39 combat missions during the Gulf War before joining NASA, where he flew three missions on the space shuttle.

Originally from New Jersey, he settled with Ms Giffords in Tucson after retiring from NASA and the Navy.

Source: AP News