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Arizona Senator Mark Kelly is now the most likely choice to become Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic ticket, according to betting markets.
The Harris campaign is still vetting candidates and has not made its pick yet. Still, according to electionbettingodds.com, which averages online betting sites, Kelly has a 34.9 percent chance of being the presumptive nominee’s vice-presidential pick.
Kelly, who hails from a key swing state that Biden flipped in 2020, has already sought to distinguish himself from his would-be rival JD Vance, hammering Trump’s running mate for his opposition to further aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“It’s pretty clear to me you’ve got JD Vance who wants to totally abandon Ukraine, and you’ve got Donald Trump who has been in the past rather pro-Russia and leaned in with Vladimir Putin in ways I would never expect the president to do,” Kelly toldPolitico on Wednesday.
“So again, we have a serious choice to make, and I’d be really concerned about what those guys would do to abandon an ally in favor of an adversary. And that would be a much more dangerous world.”
When asked if he was being vetted by the Harris campaign, Kelly added that he wouldn’t get into “private conversations.”
Other frontrunners, according to the oddsmakers, include Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (18.5 percent), North Carolina governor Roy Cooper (17.9 percent), and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (10.4 percent).
The betting odds are fairly close to the political gossip, it seems.
A source close to the Harris campaign told ABC News that Shapiro, Kelly, Cooper, and Kentucky governor Andy Beshear are all being vetted.
Democratic voters will likely have to wait until August 7 to know who comes out on top. That’s when the party’s virtual roll call process to formally nominate a candidate to replace Biden ahead of the Democratic convention ends.
