On a scorching day, Joan Walsh waited in a forlorn dark room for Kamala Harris, but on entering, the vice president immediately opened the thick curtains blocking the midday sun. Harris, Walsh writes, “was not afraid of the heat. She wanted sunshine in here.” Now that Biden has announced that he won’t see a second term, Walsh writes that Harris “is about to get much more sunshine—and heat—than she asked for.”

Harris has certainly brightened what had been a dejected Democratic Party. But, as Elie Mystal wrote earlier this week, there are already detractors, and we should be prepared for more. “The question ‘Is America ready for a Black, female president?’ will be posed again and again by people who will claim that they already know the answer is ‘no,’” Mystal predicts. “Even as Harris consolidates the entire Democratic Party around her and her campaign, there will be people telling her she can’t win because America won’t elect a woman of color.” But, he writes, “Democrats should be thrilled with the opportunity to run Donald Trump’s worst nightmare against Donald Trump.”

Alongside celebrations and critiques of Harris, people are wondering who will be her running mate. Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois are names that have been swirling. But John Nichols thinks the Harris campaign should add Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to its list of contenders. A homegrown Southerner, Beshear is eager to debate J.D Vance, who plays the Kentucky card but grew up in Ohio before moving to Silicon Valley. “Listen, J.D. Vance is a phony,” Beshear said. Maybe it’s time to pit a real Kentuckian against a fake one.

-Alana Pockros

Engagement Editor, The Nation