Joe Biden has pledged to pick a woman as his running mate if he secures (as expected) the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
“If I’m elected president, my Cabinet, my administration will look like the country,” Biden said March 15 during a Democratic presidential debate. “I would pick a woman to be my vice president.”
Biden has given a few clues as to who he might pick. At the latest Democratic debate, he said he would appoint the first black female Supreme Court justice, which might mean he is leaning toward picking a white woman as his vice president. Biden, 77, has also said his pick would have to be “capable of [being] president because I’m an old guy,” which might mean he’d skew younger with his veep pick.
The former vice president told supporters in a phone call last Sunday that he will begin his search for a running mate “in a matter of weeks,” The New York Post reported. Biden also said he has spoken to former President Barack Obama about potential picks. Biden said he would choose from a group “in excess of six or seven people” and that the vetting process would begin “relatively soon.”
So with that in mind, here are half a dozen possible running mates for Biden (in no particular order):
1. SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN
The Massachusetts Democrat, 70, was once the frontrunner for the 2020 nomination. Then her campaign imploded. She dropped in the polls after weak performances in the debates, and on March 3 — Super Tuesday — she came in third in her home state’s primary.
Warren brings a lot of baggage. She’s been caught being dishonest on numerous things, including her heritage (she said she was Native American; a DNA test showed she wasn’t). And she doesn’t exactly fit together with the platform laid out by Biden, who said it is “going to be important that whomever I pick is completely comfortable with my policy prescriptions as to how we move forward.”
Unlike others, Warren has not yet endorsed a candidate. And in a move to woo her, Biden has adopted some of Warren’s policy points into his own platform. Even though the two don’t agree on everything, if Biden were to choose Warren, he might pick up support from the more progressive wing of the party, which leans toward her and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
What’s more, Warren would deliver much-needed name recognition. Unlike Sarah Palin, who was a mostly unknown governor when Sen. John McCain picked her as his running mate in 2008, most Americans have heard of Warren. But she comes from a solidly blue state in the liberal northeast, which means she won’t help much there.
Biden has already expressed an openness to pick Warren. “I’d add Senator Warren to the list,” he told Axios in December, before voting for the nomination began. “But she’s going to be very angry at my having said that. … The question is would she add me to her list.”
2. SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR
The Minnesota senator, 59, was a darling of many political pundits and pollsters, mainly because she’s smart and articulate. She wowed watchers of the debates, firing out some zingers while also delivering some common-sense views that jibe with many Americans’ beliefs.
But her campaign never really caught on, and the day before Super Tuesday, having collected just seven delegates of the 1,991 needed for the nomination, she dropped out of the race.
Politicos say her endorsement of Biden right before Super Tuesday helped push Biden to several big wins across the country (along with the endorsement of another popular candidate, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who also bailed before Super Tuesday, when voters in over a dozen states cast ballots).
Biden appreciated her exit from the race, which at the time appeared to be heading toward a possible brokered convention, with Biden, Sanders and then-candidate Michael Bloomberg splitting up the delegates so that no one would secure the nomination. Biden also said earlier this month that Klobuchar — along with New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Sen. Kamala Harris — were “all capable of being president.”
While stumping for Biden in Michigan this last month, Klobuchar said she “couldn’t think of a better way to end my candidacy than join the ticket,” prompting speculation that Biden offered her a deal if she dropped out. She corrected herself, saying, “joining the terrific campaign of Joe Biden.”
3. STACEY ABRAMS
Stacey Abrams, 46, is the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who took days to acknowledge her loss — and still today questions the outcome.
While lacking the name recognition of Warren, Abrams is a prominent black politician and could even put Georgia in play in 2020 (President Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 5 points in 2016, and Barack Obama lost badly in both 2008 and 2012). But Democrats think Georgia, like Texas, is trending toward the Democrats, with large influxes of younger people moving into those states.
And whenever you’re playing the veep game, it’s worth taking a look at the betting markets: Bookies give Abrams 9-2 odds to win the veepstake.
Abrams is seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, and last November, Biden said he sees Abrams as a potential running mate, referring to her as “the woman who should have been the governor of Georgia.”
And she’s made clear she’d accept the offer.
“It would be doing a disservice to every woman of color, every woman of ambition, every child who wants to think beyond their known space for me to say no, or to pretend oh no, I don’t want it,” Abrams said in February. “Of course I want it. Of course I want to serve America, of course I want to be a patriot.”
4. SEN. KAMALA HARRIS
Another strong black woman is Kamala Harris, 55, a first-term senator from California.
Harris had a couple good performances in the Democratic debates and rose in the polls. However, she got the rise by attacking Biden, insinuating that he was a racist for opposing forced busing.
“Vice President Biden, I do not believe you are a racist,” Harris said in the first debate. “I also believe — and it’s personal and it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. It was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.”
Like Warren, she has name recognition, but she does not offer the chance to win a normally red state, as Biden will win California with whomever he chooses.
After Harris dropped out of the race, Biden said he would consider her to be his running mate. “She is solid. She can be president someday herself. She can be the vice president. She can go on to be a Supreme Court justice. She can be attorney general. I mean, she has enormous capability,” he said.
And Harris has made clear she’d consider the job, joking with reporters that “if people want to speculate about running mates, I encourage that, because I think that Joe Biden would be a great running mate.”
5. SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
Like a slew of the 20-plus candidates who entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, 53, likely got in just to be considered for the vice presidential slot.
The two-term senator from New York never made much of a splash in the polls, routinely pulling just 1% in most surveys. And she didn’t even make it into 2020 — she suspended her campaign in August 2019, when she didn’t qualify for the third Democratic debate.
But Gillibrand is a savvy politician and she fits with Biden’s mandate to make sure “whomever I pick is completely comfortable with my policy prescriptions as to how we move forward.”
In 2010, Gillibrand led the campaign to repeal the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy that banned gay men and lesbian women from serving in the military.
Like Biden, she holds mostly moderate positions, far different from top candidates like Warren and Sanders. According to FiveThirtyEight, Gillibrand was “among the least liberal members of the Democratic caucus.” Yet she has also voted against Trump’s positions “more often than any other senator,” FiveThirtyEight said.
6. GRETCHEN WHITMER
Who?
Yes, Gretchen Whitmer, 48, is barely known even within circles of political pundits and pollsters, but she’s seen by top power brokers as a rising star in the Democratic Party.
She took office last year as governor of Michigan — set to be one of just a handful of states that will decide the 2020 general election (Clinton lost Michigan and Wisconsin, which voted for Obama twice, and Biden will need to flip both of them back to the Democratic side to win in November). Her addition to the ticket might just put Michigan into the D column.
While many have never heard of her, she was selected to give the official Democratic response to Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address. And though she’s little known, once again it’s worth checking with the bookies: betting markets give her 16-1 odds.
Whitmer was recently on stage with Biden when he said he was a “bridge” to younger, accomplished Democrats — like the Michigan governor. “Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,” he said. “There’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”
But unlike many of the others, Whitmer says she doesn’t want the job. “I think it is 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,” Whitmer said last week on MSNBC. “It’s not going to be me, but I am going to have a hand in helping make sure that he has the rounded-out ticket that can win.”
Still, going from governor to vice president is a pretty tempting prospect, so if Biden offers the job, Whitmer will likely take it. As one politician once said, the job of vice president “isn’t worth a bucket of warm spit.” But if any of the potential candidates above get the offer, they’ll almost certainly accept.