After smooth campaign start, Kamala Harris faces a crucial week ahead [Video]

WASHINGTON – The crowds are psyched. The campaign donations are flooding in. Volunteers are showing up at field offices in droves.

After a mostly smooth two-week campaign startup, Vice President Kamala Harris is headed into a crucial week that includes her most critical decision yet — choosing a running mate — while grappling with how to keep that early political momentum alive.

Harris, a former prosecutor known for being deliberative, effectively has a deadline of Tuesday to select who will be her No. 2 from a list that has been whittled down to four governors, a senator and a Cabinet official who was also one of her 2020 foes. It’s a high-pressure decision that usually spans several months, but in this case is compressed into a matter of just weeks.

From there, Harris and her running mate will launch into an aggressive, seven-state battleground tourthat begins in Philadelphia on Tuesday and winds through …