Holder, Covington Tapped to Vet Harris Vice President Contenders

Vice President Kamala Harris is turning to former Attorney General Eric Holder and his law firm, Covington & Burling, to help her vet possible running mates.

Holder, a Covington partner who led the Justice Department in the Obama administration, is expected to run point on the vetting process for Harris, said a source briefed on the matter. The prominent Beltway firm has close ties to President Joe Biden and the Democratic National Committee.

Harris is moving closer to becoming the Democratic Party’s official nominee after Biden dropped his bid for a second term and endorsed her Sunday. Some of the elected officials floated as her possible running mate include Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.

Reuters first reported Holder’s role for the Harris campaign.

Within 24 hours of Harris advancing to the top of the ticket, she’s broken grassroots fundraising records and secured several other key endorsements from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, as well as Beshear and Whitmer.

The Harris campaign is effectively inheriting the infrastructure and personnel of the Biden-Harris presidential campaign, the source said.

The various fundraising committees set up for Biden have now been rebranded as Harris for President, the Harris Victory Fund, and Harris Action Fund, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. While Biden has withdrawn from the 2024 US presidential race, Harris “remains a candidate for federal office, and the previously raised funds can support her candidacy—and she can continue to raise into the committees going forward,” the source said.

The Biden campaign employs about a dozen in-house lawyers led by J. Maury Riggan, a former Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr counsel who most recently served as a White House counsel. Riggan and other Biden lawyers will now see their efforts transition to Harris.

Covington has been an outside legal adviser to Biden’s campaign, led by senior counsel Robert Lenhard. The former Federal Election Commission chairman also advised Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020. Dana Remus, previously general counsel to the Biden-Harris campaign during that prior election cycle, joined Covington’s Washington office as a partner in 2022.

In January, former Biden White House counsel Stacey Grigsby rejoined Covington as co-chair of the law firm’s government litigation practice.

Covington received $373,500 in legal fees from the Biden campaign in June, according to FEC filings.

—Zoe Tillman contributed to this report