As Biden bows out, industry hopes Harris will pick crypto-friendly running mate

A version of this story appeared in our The Guidance newsletter on July 22. Sign up here.

Who will be Kamala Harris’ running mate, and what do they think of crypto?

Now that President Joe Biden has abandoned his bid for re-election, Harris, the current vice president, is considered to be a shoe-in for the Democratic Party’s nomination — although we won’t know that for some time.

That’s fueled guessing about whom she might pick as her running mate.

Harris will likely go with someone from a state where a thin margin of voters could swing an entire election.

Consequently, speculation has focused on governors from those key battleground states.

She must pick carefully, crypto promoters said.

With Biden stepping aside, “the Democratic Party has a huge opportunity to win back a big share of the crypto vote,” crypto lawyer Jake Chervinsky wrote on X.

Many crypto voters are left-leaning and don’t want to support the Republican Party, because of its stance on abortion rights, Chervinsky wrote.

A well-chosen running mate pick “can flip the script and win back a meaningful number of crypto voters.”

Here are some of the top candidates for VP based on odds from crypto betting site Polymarket — a gauge of crypto sentiment.

Roy Cooper

Polymarket considers North Carolina governor Roy Cooper most likely to share the ticket with Harris, giving him a 31% chance of winning the VP nomination.

Cooper, once a high-profile attorney who served as his state’s attorney general, has almost completed his second term as governor.

Crypto connection: Cooper recently vetoed a bill that would have banned central bank digital currencies in his state.

Many lawmakers, especially Republicans, view CDBCs as tools of government surveillance.

Republican nominee Donald Trump has pledged to never allow the creation of a digital dollar.

Cooper called the bill “premature, vague, and reactionary” and said it “proposed an end result on important monetary decisions that haven’t even been made yet.”

Josh Shapiro

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro’s odds of winning the VP nomination are 27%, according to Polymarket.

Shapiro is a career politician who has served as Pennsylvania attorney general.

While AG, he led an investigation into child abuse in the Catholic Church that resulted in a bombshell report.

If chosen as Harris’ running mate, he could be the first Jewish vice president of the US.

Crypto connection: Shapiro is considered friendly to Bitcoin miners.

Environmentalists sued Shapiro and crypto miner Stronghold in April, alleging that one of Stronghold’s plants polluted with the governor’s support and received tax breaks.

Mark Kelly

Arizona senator Mark Kelly could bring a lot of credibility to Harris’ campaign. After all, he’s literally an astronaut.

Kelly, a naval veteran who saw action in the Gulf War, has flown space missions, including on the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Polymarket puts his odds at 16%.

Kelly, who entered politics via activism on gun violence, won election for Senate in 2019.

Crypto connection: Kelly was one of 12 Democratic senators who voted to overturn the Securities and Exchange Commission’s SAB 121 accounting guidance.

Andy Beshear

Beshear supports gay marriage and access to abortion.

Nevertheless, he is serving his second term as governor of deeply conservative Kentucky.

It’s partly a testament to his competence — he won approval for steering his state through the Covid-19 pandemic and a series of natural disasters.

Crypto connection: US states that rely on boom-and-bust industries like fossil fuels are desperate to attract crypto miners.

Kentucky is one of these states. Beshear has signed two laws giving tax breaks and other incentives to miners.

He also approved the creation of a Kentucky blockchain working group.

Reach out to me at joanna@dlnews.com.