Kelly and Shapiro locked to be Kamala Harris' Vice President

John Biden is out of the 2024 US elections race, with a worthy successor emerging in the face of his Vice President, Kamala Harris, who was said to have a much better chance than her boss to secure the party nomination following a disastrous debate President Biden held against the then presumptive Republican nominee, Donald Trump.

Bookmakers continue to offer odds for the US presidential race

Since Donald Trump was confirmed as the official Republican nominee at the Republican National Conference earlier this month, and survived an assassination attempt, the GOP has mostly looked triumphant.

Yet, President Biden’s decision to drop out of the race has dealt Republicans a blow to the gut. POTUS' decision has had a reinvigorating effect on the Democratic electoral base, with Harris, a largely unpopular candidate (her poll numbers mirrored or trailed those of President Biden for most of the term) suddenly becoming all the talk in town and she surprisingly galvanized a strong social media response with British pop star XCX calling her a "brat" (that is a good thing on the off chance you are not up to date on your Gen Z slang)

Now, bookmakers are racing to predict not whether Harris will become the party’s nominee (she is odds-on), as she has already secured strong endorsements from potential contenders, including Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Gavin Newsom of California, and more of the party's mandarins, including Josh Shapiro and Andy Beshear have been openly suggesting that they would accept to run as Harris’s Vice President, if is she to be nominated of course.

Yet, bet365 and betUS have already started offering odds, and both bookmakers agree with the chances given to each candidate. We will only use bet365’s for reference here. Right now, the Democrat insiders most likely to claim the VP position are Mark Kelly and Josh Shapiro. They are given +150 and +300 odds respectfully, although Kelly may come as too blunt and uncharismatic when he speaks, one critic has it. The rest of the field looks as such:

• Roy Cooper +333
• Pete Buttigieg +650
• Andy Beshear +800
• Tim Walz +1,600

These odds largely run with political and public sentiment. Analysts have suggested that Harris, a woman of color, would not seek to "diversify" her ticket further than that, and political analysts have mostly agreed that Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania could be a tremendous pick, as he both revels in bashing MAGA acolytes and has recently said for a CNN interview that "J.D. Vance lacks ‘conviction,’ unlike his boss – who had 34 of them," openly engaging in the political muckraking which has become standard fare over the past several years.

The scramble for VP is real, and political betting opportunities abound

He is also a widely popular governor in the Keystone State not least because of finishing an important infrastructure project ahead of schedule. Pennsylvania itself is a battleground state, which could decide the race, and whoever takes Pennsylvania usually claims most of the Rust Belt states.

However, Shapiro has been a vocal supporter of Israel and this could prove another fault line in places such as Michigan, where many of the swing voters are Muslim and may not look too favorably on a hawkish VP who offers unconditional support for a side that they generally look askance at.

The odds across other websites similarly tend to favor Kelly, a bit of a drab choice it may turn out, but also a person who used to be an astronaut and an air force pilot, and who knows how to deal with pressure.

Interestingly, bet365 still makes room for Whitmer, Newsom and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois (whose family owns the Hyatt hospitality group), all of whom are posted at +5000.

Image credit: Flickr (@Gage Skidmore)