'Should have been Josh Shapiro': Harris' VP contenders passed over for Walz dodge massive campaign loss

In addition to Trump and the dozens of congressional and gubernatorial incumbents and candidates across both political parties who notched victories, Democrats in Harris' orbit who were floated as vice presidential contenders also emerged as winners for not joining the Democratic ticket. 

Pennsylvania ultimately voted for Trump and moved him across the finish line. 

Harris snubbed Shapiro in favor of Walz, who was relatively unknown to the public outside of Minnesota and Washington, D.C., before becoming Harris' running mate. 

Now that the presidential election is over, Shapiro could make a run on his own for the White House in the future after his name recognition grew on the national level this year and due to him being from the top battleground state of this year's cycle. 

Kelly also avoided attaching his name directly to the failed 2024 Democratic ticket, instead focusing on his Senate term. 

Kelly notably flipped late Republican Sen. John McCain's Senate seat in 2020, notching a historic win for Democrats in the state, and the party holds both Senate seats for the first time since the 1950s. 

He is now positioned to potentially run for president in the future. 

"If Mark Kelly wants to run for president in the future, he's immediately in the small circle of people who have a shot," political consultant Andy Barr told Axios early this year. 

The 46-year-old also could have appealed to younger voters but was sidelined in favor of Walz. 

Beshear won a second term as governor in the deep red state last year as speculation mounted he could launch a presidential campaign in the future. 

"I'm sure many people around him are saying, 'You may have just a perfect formula for a Democrat moving forward'," Dewey Clayton, a political scientist at the University of Louisville, told the Courier Journal over the summer. 

"As a founding member of She Shoulda Picked Shapiro, I think it's relatively clear now that she made a mistake," statistician Nate Silver told The New York Times ahead of Election Day. 

"Pennsylvania seems to be lagging a little behind the other blue wall states. Meanwhile, Walz was mediocre in the debate, and he's been mediocre and nervous in his public appearances."

Harris-Walz surrogate Lindy Li told Fox News senior White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich from Howard University that Shapiro would have likely aided the Harris campaign's efforts to notch a massive victory. 

"One of the things that are top of mind is the choice of Tim Walz as vice presidential candidate," Li said. "A lot of people are saying tonight that it should have been Josh Shapiro. Frankly, people have been saying that for months.

Walz will conclude his second term as governor in 2027.