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   Congressional Black Caucus. If he were to step aside, though, several   
   members say they expect that support would immediately transfer to her.   
      
      
   “I actually don’t think that anybody else other than her would beat Trump   
   because of what you’d lose in the base,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New   
   York   
   congressman and senior CBC member.   
      
   Harris’ preparations for Trump   
   Harris has considered what it would be like to run against Trump before. In   
   late 2018, over two days of sessions with top aides to decide about running   
   for the Democratic nomination in 2020, among the questions aides pressed her   
   with was what she would do in a town hall-style debate with Trump, similar   
   to the one in 2016 where the Republican infamously stalked around behind   
   Hillary Clinton at times.   
      
      
   As vice president, Harris has tended to be known more for her word salads   
   than sharp elbows like that. But for months, she had already been on an   
   upswing in voters’ minds, which culminated in how she handled Biden’s   
   debate   
   performance in the immediate moment and afterward.   
      
   After looking over talking points suggested by Biden campaign aides to focus   
   on some of Trump’s most radical statements and that Biden had a cold,   
   according to several people familiar with what happened that evening, Harris   
   came up with her line to CNN’s Anderson Cooper in the moment, arguing that a   
   bad 90 minutes shouldn’t overshadow Biden’s three and a half years as the   
   president.   
      
   That line, with both its defense and its honesty about what happened   
   onstage, surprised even several close to her with its sharp delivery. It has   
   cut through so much that in the week since, Jill Biden, multiple campaign   
   aides and the president himself have repeated the same words almost   
   verbatim.   
      
   Even before the last week of tail spinning, Harris had kept her focus on   
   Trump, with a plan to take on his running mate by keeping the argument about   
   the top of the ticket, making out anyone who would run with him as an   
   interchangeable rubber stamp on his extremist agenda.   
      
   “The president is and will remain our party’s nominee, and Vice President   
   Harris is proud to be his running mate and looks forward to serving at his   
   side for four more years,” Brian Fallon, Harris’ campaign communications   
   director, told CNN.   
      
   Running mate options   
   Much of the speculative running mate conversation for Harris has centered on   
   Cooper, the two-term governor of North Carolina, and Beshear, the younger   
   two-term governor of Kentucky. Both, like Harris, are former state attorneys   
   general, and both have won with Republican support. Beshear attended the   
   Biden meeting on Wednesday in person, while Cooper attended virtually.   
      
   Cooper has a relationship with Harris that goes back years, to when they   
   were both attorneys general. In a late 2020 interview, after Cooper won his   
   current term and Harris was elected vice president, the governor talked   
   about how their “really good relationship” had continued into her Senate   
   years, when she would occasionally consult with him on Trump judicial   
   appointees from his home state.   
      
   “She knows what it’s like to hold a state office. I think that that’s   
   very   
   relatable to us as governors,” Cooper said then, calling Harris “whip   
   smart.”   
      
   “I think she’s ready to do this job,” Cooper said.   
      
   He demurred in that interview when asked if he could envision a Harris-   
   Cooper ticket one day, focusing on his 40-year unbeaten record as the only   
   Democrat to consistently win in North Carolina.   
      
   Beshear also knows how to win tough races. He’s won the top office twice in   
   a much more Republican-heavy state and did it while talking up Democratic   
   values like reproductive rights and looking after trans kids. He’s extremely   
   popular in his state, and has caught national attention for being young —   
   he’s 46 — and a smooth communicator who has already this year racked up   
   invites to come speak to Democratic events in Virginia, Montana and Iowa.   
      
   Neither Cooper’s nor Beshear’s aides returned requests for comment on the   
   speculation.   
      
   This story has been updated with additional information.   
      
   https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/05/politics/kamala-harris-democrats-   
   biden/index.html   
      
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