Kamala’s Best Veep Choice

The New Center: A Wednesday Newsletter From Sohrab Ahmari

My choice in this year’s election has been clear for nearly two years: All the way back in September 2022, when nearly all of our peers in right-of-center pundit-dom were jazzed for Ron DeSantis, Matthew Schmitz and I endorsed Donald Trump in the GOP primary. And recent developments—Trump’s rejection of Project 2025, his choice of J.D. Vance for his running mate, the “popularist” RNC platform, and not least the appearance of Teamster President Sean O’Brien at the Republican convention—have only solidified my resolution.

So progressives and Democrats reading this have no reason to consider my unsolicited advice. I’m only offering it because it’s possible that their presumptive nominee, Kamala Harris, will win the presidency; and if so, I want her administration to maintain as much continuity as possible with Trumpism-Bidenism: the emerging bipartisan consensus around industrial policy, manufacturing revival, and general economic protection and nationalism.

Harris herself doesn’t have political-economy chops. And already, anti-monopoly progressives like Compact contributor Matt Stoller are sounding the alarm about her cozy relations with Big Tech and Big Finance. The fear is that, with a team likely to be stuffed with Obama alumni, the Harris campaign will portend a reversion to the Obamaian model of neoliberal progressive technocracy. Is there a potential veep nominee who could strengthen her on these issues and tilt the balance in the other direction? Yes, and his name is Sen. Chris Murphy.