I'm surprised you describe Kennedy as a "liberal" in the 1960 context. He actually ran to the right of Nixon on national security issues. Running mates have occasionally been decisive. Kennedy's choice of Johnson ensured that the Democratic ticket carried Texas which was decisive in a close election. Dukakis attempted to repeat the trick with Bentsen in 1988 but by then Texas had moved further into the Republican camp and George H.W. Bush was himself an adopted Texan. Trump's choice of Pence (Governor of Indiana, a Mid-Western state) probably helped to reassure Evangelicals who might have had doubts about a thrice married New Yorker, who had previously held liberal views on abortion. To win in 2024, the Democrats MUST carry Pennsylvania, Michigan, and either Wisconsin or Arizona. As a West Coast candidate, Harris is probably better placed than Biden to carry Arizona, a state which elected both a Democratic Governor and Senator in 2022. If Whitmer is eliminated on the grounds that you cannot (yet) have two women on the ticket, that leaves Shapiro. He has won state wide elections in Pennsylvania three times, most recently by 56-44. Incidentally, how is his number of children relevant?
Well, JFK courted Martin Luther King and Mrs King, made tentative pro-Civil Rights steps and prayed FDR in aid, and he’d trod a careful line of trades unions when he was a senator. Johnson was starkly pragmatic on civil rights, especially before he became president, and was hated by union bosses.
I'm surprised you describe Kennedy as a "liberal" in the 1960 context. He actually ran to the right of Nixon on national security issues. Running mates have occasionally been decisive. Kennedy's choice of Johnson ensured that the Democratic ticket carried Texas which was decisive in a close election. Dukakis attempted to repeat the trick with Bentsen in 1988 but by then Texas had moved further into the Republican camp and George H.W. Bush was himself an adopted Texan. Trump's choice of Pence (Governor of Indiana, a Mid-Western state) probably helped to reassure Evangelicals who might have had doubts about a thrice married New Yorker, who had previously held liberal views on abortion. To win in 2024, the Democrats MUST carry Pennsylvania, Michigan, and either Wisconsin or Arizona. As a West Coast candidate, Harris is probably better placed than Biden to carry Arizona, a state which elected both a Democratic Governor and Senator in 2022. If Whitmer is eliminated on the grounds that you cannot (yet) have two women on the ticket, that leaves Shapiro. He has won state wide elections in Pennsylvania three times, most recently by 56-44. Incidentally, how is his number of children relevant?
Well, JFK courted Martin Luther King and Mrs King, made tentative pro-Civil Rights steps and prayed FDR in aid, and he’d trod a careful line of trades unions when he was a senator. Johnson was starkly pragmatic on civil rights, especially before he became president, and was hated by union bosses.