Tim Ryan For Veep?

The Harris campaign is planning to announce its vice presidential pick at  rally in Philadelphia next week, and you don't need  psychic to predict it's going to be Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania.  I have  problem, guys, with that choice, not because Shapiro is Jewish, but because he's only been governor since January 2023 and therefore does not have an extensive record.  Or maybe this is a tease and Vice President Harris will take the stage in Philly with someone else.  Other potential candidates include Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota.    

Here's a name I'd like to suggest that no one else has suggested.  How about former U.S. Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio?  

Tim Ryan is one of those reasons I have a fascination with American politics; a political hasbeen, he got shown up by Nancy Pelosi when he challenged her for the leadership of the House Democratic caucus, he was forced to end his 2020 bid for the Presidency in 2019 (long before Harris did the same), and he lost the least losable U.S. Senate election of 2022 to a tech bro who rose to fame as the author of  pseudo-memoir about growing up in the backwoods.  He's a three-time loser saddled with unrealized political ambition . . . yet you can't help loving him.   

So why Ryan?  Mainly because he won't be House Speaker, he won't be President, and he has two chances of winning higher office from Ohio, be it the governorship in 2026 or the Senate in 2028 - slim and fat.  But here are the positive reasons.  First of all, he's from a working-class background.  Second, he's from the Midwest.  He can't help Harris carry Ohio, but he can help her carry Michigan and Wisconsin - and Pennsylvania, which, I'm led to understand, is really in the Midwest, though it's technically in the Northeast.  As a guy from Youngstown,, Ryan practically lives next door to Pennsylvania.  (Josh Shapiro is from Abington, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, which is one of those typical Acela Corridor suburbs where you see a lot of blue in people's politics but not in people's collars - take it from one who had a childhood in the Philly suburbs.) Third, he has twenty years of experience on Capitol Hill compared to Harris's four as a U.S. Senator from California.  Fourth, he came out and called for Harris to be the Democratic presidential nominee before President Biden dropped out; now he looks like a prophet.  Fifth, he'd be able to run against James David Vance - again!

But . . . since it's only my opinion, and I'm a nobody - more so than Ryan - he probably won't be Harris's running mate. Besides, he's probably hoping he can still be her Secretary of Labor . . .