Joe Biden’s dream of Michelle Obama as a running mate isn’t likely to come to fruition.
So what does that mean for those floated as potential running mates for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee?
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), former Georgia Rep. Stacey Abrams, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and Rep. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), are all names that have often surfaced.
“I believe it is very important to have a woman of color,” Harris said in an interview this week with Joy Ann Reid. “I can say that Vice President Biden has looked to so many of us during the course of his candidacy, and now, to give him feedback, give him ideas to share thoughts about what’s in the best interest of our country.”
Abrams has said she’d be honored to serve as Biden’s vice president.
In a new op-ed for CNN, former NAACP President Ben Jealous called Abrams the “creative thinker who should be Biden’s vice president.”
“She has many of the strengths that can help Biden win in November, including popularity among key Democratic constituencies: progressives, young voters, and voters of color — and the data backs it up,” Jealous noted. “But Abrams has something more — a determination to get the job done, no matter what challenges may stand in her way. And given the stakes of the 2020 election, that tenacity will be a quality critical to winning back the White House in November.”
When asked by MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow if she’d agree to being Biden’s vice president, Warren didn’t hesitate.
“Yes,” she said. “We both want the same thing. We want this country to work, and we want it to work for everyone. So I’m in this fight to help in any way I can.”
On Tuesday, April 21, Biden said Obama tops his list of potential vice presidential candidates, and the country would be better served if she joined his ticket.
Neither Obama nor her husband, former President Barack Obama, have commented on Biden’s statements, which he first made to KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh.
“I’d take her in a heartbeat,” Biden said of the former first lady. “She’s brilliant. She knows the way around. She is a wonderful woman. The Obamas are great friends.”
Tempering any enthusiasm of a Biden-Obama ticket, Biden added, “I don’t think she has any desire to live near the White House again.”
He concluded that it’s still too early to select a running mate.
During the most recent presidential debate in D.C. in early March, Biden pledged to select a woman as his running mate. That promise sparked a national discussion about who would best serve as vice president.
“In terms of who to pick, we’re just beginning the process,” Biden told KDKA. “We’ll shortly name the committee to review this and begin to look through the backgrounds of the various potential nominees. And that’s just getting underway.
“I’ll commit to that [it will] be a woman, because it is very important that my administration look like the public, look like the nation,” he said. “And there will be … a woman of color on the Supreme Court, [but] that doesn’t mean there won’t be a vice president as well.
“I think it’s really important now that we establish, once and for all, we should have had a woman president already, in Hilary [Clinton], in my view,” Biden added. “There are a number of qualified women out there.”
