With fewer than three months to go until the potentially virtual Democratic National Convention, Joe Biden has formally asked Sen. Amy Klobuchar to undergo formal vetting as he considers tapping her as his running mate. The move was widely expected, and Biden is surely vetting a handful of other contenders, but the revelation sparked backlash from some liberals. It shouldn’t have, because of all the women Biden is reportedly considering for his vice presidential nomination, the Minnesota senator is Biden’s best bet, and it’s not particularly close.
The first rule of running mates is to do no harm. That tenet alone gives Klobuchar an extraordinary advantage. Unlike many of her likely top contenders, Klobuchar never chased Sen. Bernie Sanders to the left during the presidential primary, rendering her and Biden closely ideologically aligned. Like Biden, Klobuchar supports codifying Roe v. Wade but crucially supports late-term abortion restrictions. And unlike her competitors, Klobuchar’s rhetoric about abortion is relatively moderate, at least in the scope of the current extremism in the Democratic Party. She’s celebrated a reduction in the abortion rate and declared that pro-life Democrats are still welcome in the party, a necessary concession given that nearly 3 in 10 Democrats still identify as pro-life.
Similarly, Klobuchar hasn’t made herself a liability by backing 2020 trends du jour such as court packing, wealth taxes, abandoning Israel, Medicare For All, or the Green New Deal. But past the proposition of not actively harming Biden’s bid, Klobuchar may provide the best reward compared to risk.
With Barack Obama on the campaign trail and the pivotal endorsement of Jim Clyburn, Biden, like every other Democratic presidential nominee since Michael Dukakis, won his nomination with the overwhelming majority of black support and continues to seem strong among the vital demographic for the general election. Biden’s clearest path to the Oval Office likely resides through the supposed blue wall that fell with Hillary Clinton’s bid, and that’s where Klobuchar could prove significantly more beneficial to Biden’s campaign than her competitors.
Sen. Kamala Harris may be the rising star of California, but does her instinctive authoritarianism regarding everything from religious liberty to nonviolent drug offenders seem like a winning issue among the suburban women who gave Democrats the House in 2018? Seems unlikely. What about Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the trainwreck of a Michigan governor who failed to pass a semblance of the state budget she ran upon, presided over a coronavirus slaughter rate twice as egregious as that of Washington, D.C., and also may be the most whiny person in politics today? Not quite a safe bet. And then there’s Stacey Abrams, the person who’s never won a statewide election but still insists that she was robbed of the Georgia governorship, rendering her the sorest loser in the national spotlight? Hard pass.
Other lower-profile contenders such as Sen. Tammy Duckworth boast compelling resumes and obvious appeal, but Biden’s the oldest major-party presidential nominee in the nation’s history, and he could pass for a decade older. The swing voters who will decide this election may not want to gamble on Biden if he chooses an untested or unfamiliar candidate, but Klobuchar would buffer that risk. And as far as Biden’s potential biggest personal liability goes, she could insulate him more than anyone.
The evidence backing Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegation against Biden is disturbing, but his most compelling defense is that it simply doesn’t fit with the pattern of character we know about him. This defense is simple enough, but most of Biden’s wannabe running mates can’t make this case because they so thoroughly discredited themselves during the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh. Klobuchar stood alone from the Democratic women of the Senate Judiciary Committee conducting questioning, refusing to resort to the petty theatrics that Harris and the rest of their colleagues did. If the Reade allegation sticks in the news cycle, Klobuchar could insulate Biden from accusations of hypocrisy.
And perhaps most importantly, Klobuchar has already proven she’s electable. Clinton won Minnesota by just one point in 2016, but Klobuchar routinely wins reelection in the solidly purple state by more than 20 points. It’s not hard to imagine that battle-tested appeal translating to Michigan, Wisconsin, and maybe even Pennsylvania. By contrast, Whitmer only won her gubernatorial election by 10 points, and that during an election uncharacteristically favorable to Democrats.
Biden likely won’t announce his running mate for some time, and given the volatility of the coronavirus, it’s impossible to make clear projections about what will happen come November. But if you’re trying to prevent alienating the Democratic base and win over the voters who sat out 2016, Klobuchar’s not a bad bet.
