Joe Biden Selects Kalama Harris as His Running Mate
Back in March, Joe Biden pledged that should he get the Democratic nomination, a woman would be his running mate. When asked during the debate in D.C., "How will your cabinet ensure the best advice on issues that affect women's physical and financial health?" Biden committed to putting a woman on his ticket.
"If I'm elected president, my cabinet, my administration will look like the country, and I commit that I will, in fact, pick a woman to be vice president," Biden says in the video above. "There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow. I would pick a woman to be my vice president."
Bernie Sanders later dropped out of the race, leaving Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee, but one question remained: who would he choose as his VP?
Today, we finally have an answer. This afternoon, the Biden camp confirmed that he has selected California senator Kamala Harris to be his running mate.
"I’ve decided that Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation starting in January 2021," Biden said Tuesday.
Harris, one of Biden's former sparring partners, has been on a short list of VP contenders for weeks now. She made a name for herself during the debates, and while she doesn't directly help Biden flip a swing state, having a person of color on the ticket is a key issue for many Democratic voters.
Last August, Biden said he was open to choosing a person of color as his running mate, suggesting it might be his preference. "Whomever I pick, preferably it will be someone who was of color and/or a different gender, but I'm not making that commitment until I know that the person I'm dealing with I can completely and thoroughly trust as authentic and on the same page [as me]," he said.
Below, a few of the other women who were thought to have been in the running for Biden's VP.
Elizabeth Warren
With his statement about choosing a woman, Biden eliminated the possibility of selecting Bernie Sanders as his running mate, but some members of the liberal wing of the Democratic party hoped Biden will choose Elizabeth Warren to shore up his prospects with progressives.
Earlier this year, Biden's campaign announced that he was adopting Warren's bankruptcy legislation as part of his platform, which was seen as an olive branch to both progressive-leaning Democrats and Warren supporters.
Tammy Duckworth
While Duckworth wasn't a candidate during this election cycle, the junior Senator from Illinois checked a number of advantageous boxes for Biden, should he have chosen to add her to the ticket. Not only is she a woman of color, but she is a decorated veteran with years of legislative experience, and she could have helped Biden's appeal in the midwest.
Stacey Abrams
Abrams earned national attention when she nearly won the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2018 as the first black woman in the U.S. to be a major party's nominee for governor. Biden floated the idea of having Abrams in the past. When asked about his vice presidential pick last fall, he said, "I could start naming people but the press will think that’s who I picked." But then he vaguely listed the qualifications of a few women, including "the woman who should have been the governor of Georgia."
Michelle Lujan Grisham
The only Latina governor in the country, Lujan Grisham, would have possibly Biden with his appeal in the Latinx community.
Gretchen Whitmer
Another name floated was Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan who is widely considered a rising star within the Democratic Party. But earlier this year, she's confirmed that “it’s not going to be me.”
"I think it's important that he has a woman running mate, to be honest. I think that there are a lot of phenomenal potential running mates for him," she recently told MSNBC. "I'm going to help him vet and make sure he's got a great running mate. It is not going to be me."
Amy Klobuchar
Senator Klobuchar was previously thought to be a frontrunner in the race to be Biden's VP, so much so that back in May, it was widely reported that Biden asked Klobuchar to "undergo a formal vetting to be considered as his vice presidential running mate." But now she's taken herself out of the running.
"This is a historic moment, and America must seize on this moment. And I truly believe as, I actually told the vice president last night when I called him, that I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket," Klobuchar said in June, referencing the protests following the death of George Floyd and the growth of the Black Lives Matter movement.
"And there are so many incredibly qualified women, but if you want to heal this nation right now, my party ... this is sure a hell of a way to do it."
Catherine Cortez Masto
A relative newcomer among the senators on this list, Nevada Senator Cortez Masto represented a changing of the guard in the Democratic party when she took over for Harry Reid following his retirement in 2016. One notable area where Bernie has had success in the primaries has been with Latinx voters; she could have provided a much-needed boost to Biden's appeal in that community. But in late May she withdrew her name from consideration.
“It is an honor to be considered as a potential running mate, but I have decided to withdraw my name from consideration," she said in a statement. “Nevada's economy is one of the hardest hit by the current crisis and I will continue to focus on getting Nevadans the support they need to get back on their feet.”
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