In the final debate of the Democratic presidential primary, Joe Biden declared he would pick a woman to run on his ticket for vice president, saying “there are a number of women in this country who are qualified to be president tomorrow”. Functionally, that is the sole attribute a vice president needs to possess – the ability to take over from an incapacitated president and run the country.
Joe Biden, 77, and Bernie Sanders, 78, stood six feet apart on that stage and engaged in the least controversial snubbed debate handshake in history. The undeniable subtext was COVID-19. In a few painful weeks, it erased centuries of presidential campaigning muscle memory. The coronavirus will, by necessity, affect the decision of which name to etch alongside Biden's on the
campaign ticket.
So, of the most-talked about women at the top of the shortlist, how could COVID-19 sway their chances?
First there’s Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar. A dark horse in the Democratic primary, she peaked too late to challenge the nomination, but high enough to put her name in consideration for vice president.
Klobuchar brings with her the prospect of doubling down on taking back the crucial Midwest. Yet in being a moderate like Biden, she doesn’t offer his ticket overwhelming odds of winning-over the ‘Bernie or bust’ wing, nor the younger generation of voters.
More recently, Klobuchar’s husband was admitted to hospital with COVID-19. While he’s
now doing well at home, Klobuchar will thus be able to empathise with this American tragedy on a granular level. Yet empathy is not an area in which Joe Biden needs shoring up either, having experienced personal tragedy on a scale almost unmatched in American politics. Biden's best campaigning moments have always been when he’s at his most raw, grappling intimately with loss and the leadership it demands.
California Senator Kamala Harris could be Joe Biden’s political prosecutor in chief. She practically eviscerated him in the July debate on his historic positions on race. The Biden campaign must be asking itself: if Harris could do that to Biden on race, what could she do to President Trump on COVID-19? Moreover, Biden is positioning himself as the healing president, and it would be a sign of healing to pick Harris.
Biden comfortably won the broad black vote in the primary, so having a woman of colour by his side may not help him too much more with older black voters – especially now that the Obamas have been deployed.
There’s also Stacy Abrams. The narrowly defeated black contender for governor of the staunchly conservative state of Georgia and founder of electoral reform organisation ‘Fair Fight’ offers the Biden campaign a lot. Abrams, 46, is nine years younger than Harris and as COVID-19 strangles the operation of American democracy, access to voting issues will rise to unprecedented importance. With Fair Fight, Abrams has made herself a national authority on election reform. Additionally, every Senate seat is crucial for Democrats, Klobuchar’s Minnesota especially so.
California is a safe blue state and pulling Harris out wouldn’t seriously risk a Republican coup. Even less impact would be felt with Abrams.
Then there’s Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. She’s a future superstar in the Democratic Party who delivered this year’s official State of the Union reply. Whitmer won her office in 2018 by 10 points and is seen as exemplifying what it takes for Democrats to win in red states.
Michigan is not only a crucial battleground in the 2020 Senate and presidential races but is one of the nation’s worst-affected states in the COVID-19 battle. Governors have been prominent in the fight against COVID-19 and have been richly rewarded in opinion polls for their toils.
Having a
‘doer’ by his side will help Biden who is currently stranded in his living room studio while this monumental crisis unfolds. But, crucially, as my colleague Bruce Wolpe astutely asks: “can Whitmer really leave her citizens (in a must-win state) in their hour of urgent need because of her ambition to be vice president?”
The choice ultimately remains that of those asked. With a formal police report filed about a strenuously denied sexual assault allegation against Joe Biden, there is a distant world in which the woman his campaign chooses doesn't want to be his vice president.