WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris will tour battleground states next week with her vice-presidential candidate, two sources familiar with the planning said on Tuesday, a sign the selection process for her running mate is coming to a close. The high-stakes decision on who will run with Harris has taken center stage since she became the Democratic frontrunner for the November 5 election after US President Joe Biden ended his White House bid just over a week ago. Harris will announce her vice presidential pick before next week’s tour of states that could swing to Republicans or Democrats in November, one of the sources said.

Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The short list of candidates under consideration include Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, US Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. On Monday, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer both indicated they were both out of the VP sweepstakes.

A handful of US states, often called battlegrounds, have decided the presidential election in recent years, including Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Typically, campaigns begin thinking about their vice-presidential pick after the primary race ends in the spring, giving them months to vet candidates and make a decision on who the candidate meshes with best personally and politically.

Harris is being forced to select her running mate on a highly compressed timeline. She faces an August 7 deadline set by the Democratic National Committee, but the decision is likely to come sooner, according to the sources. Eric Holder Jr, the former attorney general who led the vice-presidential vetting process for Barack Obama in 2008, is vetting Harris’ picks through his law firm, Covington & Burling.

The candidates are informally auditioning for the job, hitting the airwaves and campaign stops to showcase what they would bring to the Harris ticket. Shapiro, for example, delivered a rousing testimonial about Harris in the Philadelphia suburbs on Monday. “She’s not only ready, she’s damned ready,” he said to a cheering crowd. “And you know who else knows she’s ready? Donald Trump knows she’s ready.”

Walz, the governor of Minnesota, is credited with pushing the Democrats’ new criticism of Trump and his running mate J D Vance - that they are “weird.” “The fascists depend on us going back, but we’re not afraid of weird people,” Walz said on Saturday of the Republican ticket. “We’re a little bit creeped out, but we’re not afraid.”

Harris has admitted that Democrats are the “underdogs” in the race. The question is now whether a vice president who recorded historically low approval ratings - but seeing a rapid improvement as a candidate - can keep up the momentum until November. Republican vice presidential candidate Vance - himself facing a bumpy first week amid reports that his party has buyer’s remorse over his naming to the ticket - admitted that Harris’ last-minute entry was a “sucker punch”.

The race had seemed set to feature former president Trump, 78, against incumbent Biden, 81, but the Democrat’s withdrawal due to concerns over his age now leaves Trump as the oldest candidate in US history. Vance told donors at a weekend fundraiser that “all of us were hit with a little bit of a political sucker punch,” the Washington Post reported, citing a recording of his comments. The “Hillbilly Elegy” author’s popularity has taken a hit in recent weeks from damaging old videos, including one in which he disparaged prominent Democratic women as “childless cat ladies.” — Agencies