The Democratic women vying to become Joe Biden’s running mate are publicly auditioning for the understudy role.
It’s not unusual for prospective vice presidential picks to join presumptive nominees on the campaign trail as candidates and their advisers vet and weigh their options for the general-election ticket.
But with Biden hunkered down on his Delaware property as he and millions of people obey stay-at-home orders to stop the novel coronavirus’s spread, auditioning has become less subtle, with politicking restricted to the internet and a quarantined press corps on the lookout for any development in the No. 2 race, no matter how minor.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a national Biden campaign co-chair, kick-started the process when she appeared alongside Biden at his last rally before primary voters in her state went to the polls on March 10. In retrospect, it was his final public event before states cracked down on large crowds to curb the COVID-19 outbreak.
As the leader of a must-win state for Democrats hoping to rebuild the party’s so-called “blue wall” in November, Whitmer is repeatedly mentioned as a possible contender to become Biden’s running mate.
Her national profile, boosted by her at times controversial measures trying to contain the virus in her state, has earned her rebukes from President Trump as “the woman from Michigan” and the attention of Republican opposition researchers already preparing for the fall fight.
Simultaneously, she’s drawn effusive praise from Biden, this month headlining the inaugural episode of his Here’s the Deal podcast. She has denied, however, harboring White House ambitions and told the Washington Post this week that Biden’s team has yet to request any vetting-related documents from her.
California Sen. Kamala Harris, a former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, also attended the March 10 Michigan rally after dropping her neutrality and backing Biden. Harris told MSNBC last week, “Obviously, I’d be honored to serve with Joe,” and hosted a virtual fundraiser with him in which he described their relationship as a “partnership.” She’s additionally helping Senate hopefuls Steve Bullock, Sara Gideon, and Jaime Harrison bring in much-needed cash for their respective bids in Montana, Maine, and South Carolina.
Although Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and failed 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams have been candid about wanting to be Biden’s understudy as well, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has been far more coy.
“I am focused on our country, leading the effort, so we can vote in November,” Klobuchar told CNN last weekend. “I’m just not going to engage in hypotheticals.”
Yet Klobuchar then starred on Biden’s podcast last Monday and will convene an online “Women for Biden” town hall on Thursday night.
The cadre’s support for Biden’s campaign could be chalked up to party unity. After all, Washington Gov. Jay Insee, another vanquished Democratic rival and climate-change action advocate, will guest-star in next Monday’s episode of Biden’s podcast after endorsing him Wednesday morning.
Pete Buttigieg will similarly moderate a conversation with Biden at a Thursday evening digital fundraiser. Kristin Chenoweth, Melissa Etheridge, Billie Jean King, and Billy Porter have been listed on the star-studded event’s invitation as well.
But what’s typically a shadow race shrouded in secrecy is now being contested in plain view.
Cesar Conda, a veteran of Republican presidential politics, including Bob Dole in 1996 and Marco Rubio in 2016, among others, said it wasn’t strange “at all for veep candidates to promote themselves for the job.”
“But the Democratic wannabes seem to be more aggressively open and public about it,” Conda told the Washington Examiner.
Abrams, for one, defended her strategy Wednesday, telling ABC’s The View that she always strives to be straightforward.
“While we hope the work speaks for itself, sometimes the work needs a hype man, and I learned early on that if I didn’t speak for myself, I didn’t tell the story,” she said.
Biden has promised to choose a woman for vice president and plans to unveil his decision before the Democratic National Convention, scheduled at the moment to take place from Aug. 17-20 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Biden told CBS’s Late Late Show with James Corden on Tuesday night that he was in the throes of picking a selection committee.
“We’ll be announcing the formation of that probably, I would assume, by May 1,” he said. “My guess is it’s gonna take until sometime in July to narrow it down … just to who the one, two, three people are that may be in the hunt at that point.”
