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The vice presidency has never been a particularly glamorous job — “not worth a bucket of warm spit” is how Franklin Roosevelt’s first running mate described it — but as the 2020 election approaches, the stakes of being a heartbeat away from the presidency have rarely seemed higher.
At age 78 on Inauguration Day, Joe Biden would be the United States’ oldest president. To round out his ticket, he’ll need not only a “simpatico” partner but also a potential successor capable of leading the country through its worst national crisis since World War II. Here’s what people are saying about some of the women — and yes, he has pledged to pick a woman — he might be considering.
Kamala Harris
Although African-Americans overwhelmingly vote Democratic, in 2016, black voter turnout declined for the first time in a presidential election in 20 years, down 7 percentage points from the record highs of Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election. As my colleague Astead Herndon reports, that’s partly why some black political leaders want Mr. Biden to be the first Democratic presidential nominee to pick a black running mate.
According to Mr. Herndon, Mr. Biden and his allies consider Senator Harris of California a strong contender, with both statewide and national experience. And she has grown since her presidential run, Jennifer Rubin argues in The Washington Post: Since getting flak for being fuzzy on policy, she has become a “coronavirus policy maven,” proposing vote-by-mail legislation and calling for the release of “low-risk” inmates to slow the virus’s spread in prisons.
But: During her presidential run, Ms. Harris struggled to gain traction with black voters, particularly young ones. Her record as a district attorney and the California attorney general, criticized as punitive and regressive by some criminal justice advocates, also made her a figure of suspicion among the left.
Stacey Abrams
Before losing her bid for the Georgia governorship in 2018 and founding a voting rights group, Ms. Abrams was a state legislative leader in Georgia for a decade. “Whenever those in power refused to act, Abrams was on the ground with everyday Georgians working to ensure that their communities had the care and resources to get ahead and stay ahead,” Ben Jealous, the former president of the N.A.A.C.P., writes at CNN.
But: James Clyburn — the most senior black Democrat in the House of Representatives, whose endorsement played a pivotal role in Mr. Biden’s primary comeback — said last month that Ms. Abrams did not have enough experience. Echoing that sentiment in The Washington Examiner, Kimberly Ross writes that “her years in the Georgia House of Representatives might work as a stepping stone to the very next political rung, but not serving as second-in-line to the most powerful position of leadership in the entire world.”
Elizabeth Warren
Senator Warren’s regulatory and economic expertise make her a perfect choice for this moment, Helaine Olen writes in The Washington Post. “Some made fun of Warren’s penchant for advance planning during the primary, but now we’re getting a deadly lesson in why it was so important,” she says, noting that Ms. Warren was the first presidential candidate to release a pandemic response plan back in January. There are strategic points in Ms. Warren’s favor, too: She is the most popular choice in the key Electoral College states of Michigan and Wisconsin, according to one poll, and is arguably Mr. Biden’s best bet for courting former Bernie Sanders voters.
But: For some on the left, Ms. Warren’s refusal to endorse Mr. Sanders blunted her appeal. Ms. Warren also faces a unique problem, as Kevin Robillard reports for HuffPost: She’s the only potential pick whose temporary replacement in the Senate would be appointed by a Republican governor. Theoretically, Ms. Warren might be able to prevent her replacement from serving more than a few months, but only by resigning from the Senate before the Massachusetts primary in September.
Amy Klobuchar
Senator Klobuchar of Minnesota is a good choice if Mr. Biden wants to amplify, rather than broaden, his core message, according to The Washington Post’s David Byler. The ideological gulf between Ms. Warren and Mr. Biden risks exposing old tensions between the two, but “a Biden-Klobuchar ticket would let Biden be Biden.” And after 13 years in the Senate, Ms. Klobuchar has cemented a reputation as a productive and pragmatic legislator who can win over Midwestern swing voters.
But: During her presidential campaign, Ms. Klobuchar fared dismally with black voters, which would make her “a reckless choice,” according to Aimee Allison, founder of She the People. Like Ms. Harris, Ms. Klobuchar has drawn criticism for her prosecutorial record, but her reputation as a stalwart centrist and dehumanizing boss may make her even less palatable to the left. And while Minnesota’s governor would almost certainly appoint a Democrat to fill Ms. Klobuchar’s Senate seat until a special election in 2022, there’s no guarantee her replacement would be as adept at fending off Republican challengers.
[Agree to disagree, or disagree better? Broaden your perspective with sharp arguments on the most pressing issues of the week.]
Gretchen Whitmer
If Mr. Biden wants another Midwestern moderate without the senatorial baggage, he could choose Michigan’s new governor, whose public sparring with the president over the federal response to the pandemic catapulted her to national prominence. Mr. Trump may not have known Ms. Whitmer’s name until a few weeks ago, but “what Trump surely does know is that when he won Michigan in 2016, it was by the closest margin of any state in the country,” as Karen Tumulty writes in The Washington Post.
But: Ms. Whitmer has spent less than two years in high office, as Ella Nilsen points out in Vox. And as for the idea that she would automatically deliver Michigan to Mr. Biden? There actually isn’t much data to support the prevailing myth that vice-presidential picks confer a “home state advantage.” That could hurt Ms. Whitmer’s chances — especially if, as Matthew Walther argues in The Week, her disputes with the president over the coronavirus crisis turn out to have obscured her own mishandling of it.
Catherine Cortez Masto
Senator Cortez Masto of Nevada has been floated as a potential solution to Mr. Biden’s lackluster performance with Latino voters, according to Gary Martin in The Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a former Nevada attorney general and the first Latina elected to the Senate, she might be able to boost Mr. Biden’s numbers not only in Nevada, which he lost badly to Mr. Sanders, but also in other swing states like Arizona and Florida. “The Hispanic community has never found itself on the ticket,” Jose Dante Parra, the chief executive director of Prospero Latino, told Mr. Martin. “It would be a big shot in the arm for Biden.”
But: As Mr. Martin writes, Ms. Cortez Masto has a low national profile. And like Ms. Klobuchar, she also occupies a Senate seat that could be at higher risk of swinging red in 2022 if she leaves it.
Keisha Lance Bottoms
Ms. Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta since last year, has gained national attention in recent weeks after rebuking Gov. Brian Kemp for his decision to reopen businesses in Georgia. As one of Mr. Biden’s most loyal surrogates, she has found a powerful champion in Mr. Clyburn, who has chosen to throw his weight behind her over Ms. Abrams, calling her a “tremendous V.P. candidate.”
But: Ms. Bottoms has a lower profile than Ms. Abrams, and, like her, has no national or foreign policy experience. If Mr. Biden picks her, she’ll almost certainly be asked whether running a city with fewer than 500,000 people qualifies a person for one of the most important jobs in the country. In that event, though, Pete Buttigieg would probably be willing to offer his advice.
Do you have a point of view we missed? Email us at debatable@nytimes.com. Please note your name, age and location in your response, which may be included in the next newsletter.
MORE ON THE VEEPSTAKES
“Biden’s choice of running mate matters, but not for the reasons you may think” [The Los Angeles Times]
“The three tests for a potential veep” [The Washington Post]
“Joe Biden’s Female VP Pick Is Already Caught in a Trap” [The Cut]
“Oppo dumps and behind-the-scenes lobbying: Biden’s VP search heats up” [Politico]
WHAT YOU’RE SAYING
Here’s what readers had to say about the last edition: Coronavirus critics’ picks
Richard, 67, from Cologne, Germany: “We have a teenage son and each night after dinner he selects something for us to watch together — a film or series. It has been a wonderful experience, really, understanding the types of programs he enjoys, programs he normally would have watched on his own. It has become a regular part of each day and my wife and I genuinely look forward to it.”
Anahita, 14, from California: “I’ve been reading a lot more because of the reduced workload from school. I’m now going through a book per day, and I read across a bunch of different genres. My favorite book I’ve read so far is ‘The Vegetarian’ by Han Kang, and I just finished reading Greta Thunberg’s family’s memoir, ‘Our House Is On Fire.’ They both deal with pretty heavy topics, so I’m now rereading the Lord of the Rings series to get a healthy dose of escapism. Elves and dwarves battling dark forces is a lot more fun than thinking about the coronavirus.”
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
