WASHINGTON, March 16, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – White House hopeful Joe Biden on
Sunday committed to picking a woman as his vice presidential candidate should
he win the Democratic nomination, a race he currently leads against Bernie
Sanders.
“If I’m elected president, my cabinet, my administration, will look like
the country, and I commit that I will in fact appoint a woman to be vice
president,” Biden, himself a former vice president, said during a debate
against his leftist rival Sanders.
“There are a number of women who are qualified to be vice president
tomorrow,” the moderate Biden added.
The leftist Sanders, for his part, responded by saying that “in all
likelihood” he would do the same.
“To me, it’s not just nominating a woman. It is making sure that we have a
progressive woman and there are progressive women out there.”
Two women have been chosen as running mates for major party nominees.
Democrat Walter Mondale put Geraldine Ferraro on the ticket in 1984, while
Sarah Palin was Republican John McCain’s pick in 2008, but both lost their
elections.
It has been no secret that both Biden and Sanders was seriously
considering naming a female vice presidential candidate.
Among Biden’s possible choices are Senator Kamala Harris and Senator Amy
Klobuchar, both former competitors in the battle for this year’s Democratic
Party nomination — or even the progressive Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was
briefly a frontrunner in the race.
Prior to her position in the US Senate, the African-American Harris served
as the attorney general of California, while Klobuchar is a moderate from the
Midwestern state of Minnesota.
Another possible choice is Stacey Abrams, a former state legislator from
Georgia who narrowly lost the governor’s race there in 2018.