The Far Left Is Going to Throw a Tantrum if Kamala Harris Picks Josh Shapiro as Her Running Mate

CNN’s John King offered some controversial commentary on the Democratic Party’s developing veepstakes Sunday night.

Asked about the pros and cons of naming Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro its winner, King submitted that “there could be some risk in putting him on the ticket” because he’s “a first-term governor” and “Jewish.”

King himself took some heat for the assertion, but such criticism was misplaced. He wasn’t expressing his own judgment that nominating a Jew should be a liability, he was restating the obvious: The atrocities of October 7 and war that followed them have galvanized the anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic actors on the far-left, and tapping a pro-Israel Jew as her running mate might cost Harris some of that cohort’s votes.

You don’t have to take King’s word for it.

In a screed for The New Republic, David Klion complained that “Shapiro stands out among the current field of potential running mates as being egregiously bad on Palestine,” and “is an observant Jew with personal ties to Israel.”

“His particular hostility toward pro-Palestine activists threatens to blunt the enthusiasm among young progressive voters that Harris has managed to generate in the past few days,” he fretted.

Progressive podcaster Matthew Sitman concurred. “Really hope it’s not Shapiro—would immediately undercut the good faith chance a lot of us on the left are giving Harris,” he mused online. “Like, literally just don’t pick someone who is worse than you on Israel-Palestine.”

“Choosing Governor Josh Shapiro for Vice President would be a mistake,” argued Bernie Sanders alum and failed candidate Nina Turner. “Governor Shapiro compared pro-peace protesters to the KKK. That’s simply unacceptable & would stifle the momentum VP Harris has. Hopefully she is looking to build a broad coalition to beat Trump.”

Eric Michael Garcia of The Independent and MSNBC, meanwhile, took issue with not just Shapiro’s support of the world’s only Jewish-majority state, but his refusal to quiver before and submit to the teachers’ unions in the way that so many of his fellow Democrats have. “Everybody’s focused on Shapiro’s stance on Israel-Palestine,” observed Garcia. “But his stance on school choice and vouchers would probably make him a tough sell for Democrats.”

There’s no doubt about it, Shapiro’s steadfast support for the Middle East’s only liberal democracy and failure to embrace all of the far-left’s cultish orthodoxies in the way that Harris has would offend some inside of the Democratic Party.

Of course, what they haven’t considered is that it’s their observance of those orthodoxies that has brought them to this point.

The deeply unpopular incumbent Democratic president — who many on the left have praised for his progressive accomplishments — has been forced off the ticket. Now, Democrats are celebrating because his deeply unpopular vice president who flamed out in spectacular fashion running to the left of him last time around has taken his place even though she’s poised to lose to the also deeply unpopular Donald Trump according to the polls.

Maybe it would make some sense to pick someone with a different philosophical and temperamental approach to balance out the ticket?

But then again, maybe the far left doesn’t care.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.