Kamala Harris has been accused of picking the wrong running mate as the Democratic blame game over her humiliating election defeat began.
The US vice-president appeared on course to lose every one of the seven swing states that determined the White House race.
Ms Harris, 60, declined to address the nation on election night, leaving Democratic operatives to fill the vacuum.
Some blamed her choice of Tim Walz, the unassuming Minnesota governor, as her vice-presidential candidate.
The leading alternative had been Josh Shapiro, the charismatic and popular governor of all-important Pennsylvania.
Lindy Li, a Pennsylvania-based senior Democratic official, told Fox News: “People are wondering tonight what would have happened had Shapiro been on the ticket. And not only in terms of Pennsylvania.”
Ms Li said that as a moderate, Mr Shapiro “would have signalled to the American people that she is not the San Francisco liberal that Trump said she was”.
“But she went with someone actually to her Left,” she added. “In the eyes of the American people, Walz was the governor who oversaw the protests.”
