DETROIT — Vice President Kamala Harris smiled, laughed and showered her fellow Democrats with compliments as she campaigned in Detroit on Saturday with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who remains a favorite for reelection even as her race with Republican Tudor Dixon appears to tighten.
But politicos watching Harris’ and Whitmer’s appearance together were interested in more than the governor’s chances in next month’s midterm elections. The vice president and the governor, now allies, are seen as possible future rivals and could well face each other in a presidential primary in 2024 or 2028, depending on whether President Joe Biden seeks another term, as he has promised.
At a Michigan Democratic Party fundraising event at a facility that trains young people for jobs in tech and construction, Harris greeted Whitmer with a hug. She opened her speech by thanking and praising the governor, whom she called an “extraordinary leader” who is “always about real talk” and had kept her campaign promise to “fix the damn roads.”
