Kamala Harris VP pick expected imminently, Josh Shapiro arrives in Harrisburg; JD Vance traveling to Philly

Vice President Kamala Harris is postponing a scheduled trip to Georgia amid the ongoing effects of Tropical Storm Debby.

Harris’ campaign said her stop planned in Savannah, Georgia, on Thursday, was being put off due to the storm.

Running-mate sideshows are nothing new in presidential politics, and the buzz surrounding Josh Shapiro marks at least the third time in the last 40 years that a politician in Pennsylvania, with its robust supply of electoral votes, has surfaced as a vice-presidential possibility.

On June 28, 1984 presumed Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale interviewed Mayor W. Wilson Goode, Philly’s first Black mayor, as a possible running mate. That was the year before the MOVE disaster in which 11 people died and 61 West Philadelphia homes were destroyed.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro didn’t say anything about the status of the vice presidential candidate selection Monday morning as he arrived at the state Capitol in Harrisburg.

“I got nothing for you, man,” the first-term Democrat said and told an Associated Press reporter “have a great day” as he headed into the governor’s offices, flanked by an aide and several state troopers.

'The Avengers' actor and high-profile environmentalist Mark Ruffalo is highlighting a letter from Pennsylvanians and grassroots environmental groups that urges Vice President Kamala Harris to remove Gov. Josh Shapiro from consideration to be her running mate in a post on X Friday evening, citing what the residents call Shapiro's "detrimental" handling of a contaminated water crisis in Dimock, Pa. when he was state attorney general.

Ruffalo is urging the Harris campaign to read the letter addressed to the vice president and her team alleging that Shapiro's AG office did not provide the "bulk" water supply promised to Dimock residents while they were awaiting a water pipeline to be built – an agreed upon remedy to the community's water contaminated by fracking and oiling drilling.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a leader of the national progressive prosecutor movement, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president Sunday, saying in a statement she “will save our democracy from Donald Trump, the MAGA haters, and anyone else who would erase Philadelphians’ votes.”

In the written statement, Krasner referred to Harris a “(reform) prosecutor” – parentheticals and all – lending her approval from a district attorney considered to be one of the most progressive in the country. Harris has at times faced criticism from the left for her tenure as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, with some pointing to her record aggressively prosecuting marijuana-related offenses.

“The Republican Party in Montgomery County is back.”

Christian Nascimento, the chair of the county party, made that declaration last month as rain drizzled over dozens of volunteers and committeepeople in Jenkintown, where the party opened the first of several planned satellite offices in traditionally blue areas.

Philadelphia will be at the center of the political universe Tuesday.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ first rally with her yet-to-be-named running mate will be at Temple University’s 10,000-seat basketball arena on Tuesday, according to a source with knowledge of the planning.

When Vice President Kamala Harris appears for the first time with her running mate in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he hopes and plans to be in attendance.

But it’s still unclear what his role will be at that event.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once retrieved a bear that was killed by a motorist and left it in New York’s Central Park with a bicycle on top, sparking a mystery that consumed the city a decade ago.

Kennedy describes the incident in a video that was posted to social media Sunday, adding it will be included in a forthcoming New Yorker article that he expects to be damaging.

One spring day in 1986, Josh Shapiro became a bar mitzvah. Rabbi Aaron Landes told the packed congregation at Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park that there was something special about the boy.

Joshua, Rabbi Landes said, carried himself with “a special dignity that is reflective of a young man with a purpose, a goal.”