Joe Biden’s shortlist for the Democratic vice presidential nomination includes a former two-term attorney general from a western state who was elected to the Senate in 2016.
Not Kamala Harris, the California senator and former 2020 rival of the presumptive Democratic nominee, but Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, whose name is getting mentioned increasingly as a potential running mate for Biden, particularly by her political mentor, former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, whom she succeeded in the chamber in early 2017.
Among her political attributes, Cortez Masto could help build support among Latino voters, a crucial voting bloc for Biden as he attempts to topple President Trump in November.
Cortez Masto is one of only two Democratic senators with direct Latin heritage, along with Bob Menendez of New Jersey. Her father is of Mexican descent, while her mother has Italian lineage.
“As a Latino senator from the battleground state of Nevada, picking her would be a further acknowledgment of the increasing clout of Hispanic voters within the Democratic Party,” said Jim Manley, a former longtime aide to Reid when he was Senate Democratic leader.
But Cortez Masto, having endorsed Biden last week, hasn’t offered the same full-throated support for the former vice president and 36-year Delaware senator as other potential running mates regarding his denials surrounding the allegation that he sexual assaulted Tara Reade, a former aide in his Senate office, in 1993. Repeated questions for comment have gone unanswered from her office, while Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams have all said they believe Biden in numerous public statements and interviews.
In a statement backing Biden for president, Cortez Masto, 56, cited his experience leading the Obama administration’s stimulus program during the nation’s economic recovery from the Great Recession a decade ago and his ability to handle the coronavirus outbreak based on his long government service.
Shortly thereafter, she sent out a fundraising plea on Biden’s behalf. In an email last week, Cortez Masto said she has known Biden for nearly a decade and was Nevada attorney general while his late son, Beau Biden, was attorney general of Delaware.
“It was then when I saw his love for Nevada. I always say, and I might be biased, that Nevada is the perfect microcosm of America,” she wrote about Biden. “Our diversity is our strength. From our strong Latino, Asian American & Pacific Islander and African American communities to our rich mining, gaming and framing history, Nevada is the perfect melting pot of America. And Joe Biden knows that as well as anyone.”
Winning the Latino vote, a group that tends to vote at lower rates compared to black or white voters, is of special concern during this election. Trump’s reelection campaign has focused on increasing his share of the minority vote this cycle, launching Latino outreach.
In 2016, Trump won 28% of the Latino vote, one of the best performances for a Republican candidate since George W. Bush. A Pew Research Center survey in February found his support from Hispanics reaching 30%. Many within the Trump reelection campaign believe Trump can win 35%-40%, particularly among Hispanic men.
“She checks the boxes. Her grandparents were Mexican immigrants. She’s a great success story,” said University of Nevada, Las Vegas, professor Michael Green. “She was Harry Reid’s choice to succeed him,” he said, adding that Cortez Masto enjoys support from the state’s unions, a potent political force there.
Although much media coverage surrounding Biden’s running mate choice has focused on whether he will pick an African American running mate, little evidence exists he will need help generating their turnout. During the primaries, Biden overwhelming won the black vote in nearly every state. In some state districts, such as in Virginia, Biden won more votes from black voters than Obama did in the 2008 primary.
Sen. Bernie Sanders may have had a poor performance on Super Tuesday, but one of the key strengths he demonstrated in his performance was his ability to win support among Hispanic voters. In Texas, for example, exit polls showed him winning 41% of Hispanic voters in the state. Nearly 49% of Latinos in California backed his bid as well.
Support by Latinos is also credited for Sanders’s overwhelming victory in Nevada despite heavy resistance from the unions in Las Vegas.
Those results set off red flags for the Biden campaign, which is currently debating whether to focus outreach on the white working class by selecting a running mate such as Klobuchar, push for record turnout with black voters with Kamala Harris, or try to win back Latinos with a vice presidential nominee such as Cortez Masto.
“The question remains of whether those votes will turn out whether or not there’s a Latino if they don’t choose Masto,” Green said.
