The Democratic Party launched its virtual roll call on Thursday to officially nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as its candidate to be the next commander in chief. Harris is expected to announce her running mate soon.
Speculation about her vice presidential candidacy is in full swing. Washington, DC, Office recently spoke to political experts who suspect Harris is looking for someone outside the Beltway to connect with voters.
According to media reports, she has narrowed her choices to four male governors and one U.S. senator – all white – representing a mix of contested and firmly left-leaning states: Governors Andy Beshear of Kentucky, JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Tim Walz of Minnesota and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona.
All five men have criticized the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down federal abortion rights, and they have supported policies to protect or expand reproductive rights in the two years since the Women’s Health Organization’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson. (The governors are also members of the Alliance for Reproductive Freedoma bipartisan coalition of leaders committed to preserving abortion rights and reproductive health under Dobbs.)
Here’s a look at what Harris’ possible vice presidential candidate has said – and done – on the issue of reproductive rights:
Governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear
As a Democratic governor in a conservative-leaning state, Beshear has pushed lawmakers to add exceptions for rape and incest to abortion laws. The state passed a trigger law and a near-total abortion ban after Roe v. Wade fell in June 2022. During his re-election campaign last year, Beshear ran ads featuring Hadley Duvall stressing that victims of sexual assault receive no reprieve under bans. Kentucky Lantern reported. Duvall was raped and impregnated by her stepfather when she was 12. Pressure The ads prompted Beshear’s opponent, former Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron, to say that if elected governor, he would sign a law making exceptions for rape and incest in Kentucky.
Beshear won 52% of the vote in November 2022, and he thanked Duvall in his victory speech, according to the Lantern“What a brave, courageous young woman she is,” Beshear said. “We believe she and everyone else should have options, and the legislature should make this change as soon as possible.” In April Republicans in the Senate blocked vote about laws that would have addressed this problem.
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly
Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy captain, has been in office since 2020 and was re-elected in 2022. He voted for the Law to protect women’s health in May 2022, a law that would codify the federal right to abortion. “We need to codify Roe at the federal level,” Kelly said in May, according to Arizona Mirror“I think that’s really the way forward.” Ahead of the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision, Kelly said highlighted such as abortion bans have impacted the entire spectrum of reproductive health care and caused some doctors to leave Arizona, which has a 15-week vaccination ban.
Kelly also supported protections for artificial insemination in Congress. In June, he and his wife, Gabby Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt in 2011, wrote in an essay for People Magazine about their fertility issues. Two days after Giffords was shot, the couple was scheduled to have an embryo implantation appointment. They wrote: “Our dream of having a child together was taken from us by a gunman. The American dream of having a child together could be taken from us by politicians.”
Governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker
Pritzker leads a state that has become a major abortion access point in the Midwest. Illinois borders Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri — all of which have abortion bans — and Iowa, which passed a six-week ban this week. He recently signed a law requiring insurers to cover postpartum care — doulas, midwives, lactation consultants — for up to a year after birth. Capitol News Illinois reported. The Law In addition, co-payments and deductibles for abortions were abolished.
He signed a budget in June that allocates more than $23 million to a range of maternal health programs that invest in community-based providers, home health programs and free diapers. “There is no choice without access to a full range of reproductive health care for women and new mothers,” Pritzker said. said in February when the initiative was announced.
Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro
Shapiro, who was formerly the state’s attorney general, was elected governor in November 2022. Last month Pennsylvania Capital Star reported that he would not defend the state’s ban on using Medicaid funds for abortion. “The Pennsylvania Constitution prohibits sex discrimination – and as our Supreme Court ruled earlier this year, the state’s ban on Medicaid coverage for abortion services is sex discrimination,” Shapiro said in a statement.
He completed the state’s contract with Real Alternatives, a group that funds anti-abortion pregnancy centers, in December 2023, Capital Star reported. The organization received between 2012 and 2017Shapiro also signed a law last year Improving the recording of pregnancy-related deathsHe stands in front of criticism because his office paid $295,000 to settle a female employee’s sexual harassment complaint against his former Cabinet secretary.
Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz
Although a 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling guaranteed the right to abortion, Walz signed a law expanding access in the state. YearLawmakers eliminated the 24-hour waiting period for abortions, ended comprehensive reporting of abortions, and repealed the requirement that abortions be performed in hospitals.
In January 2023, he signed the Protect Reproductive Options Act, which the right to reproductive health care and abortion is codified without restrictions or exceptions, Minnesota Reformer reported. “The message we are sending to Minnesota today is very clear. Your rights are protected in this state. You have the right to make your own decisions about your health, your family and your life,” Walz said during the bill signing ceremony.
