Rep. James Clyburn urged former Vice President Joe Biden to pick a black woman as his running mate.
Biden, the 2020 Democratic presidential front-runner, committed to selecting a woman to run with him if he’s the party’s nominee.
“There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow. I would pick a woman to be my vice president,” Biden said at Sunday’s Democratic presidential debate.
Clyburn, who gave Biden a critical endorsement before the South Carolina primary, said there’s a “deeper bench than people realize” of black women who are qualified.
“I’ll never tell you who I’m going to advise him,” Clyburn told Axios, “but I would advise him that we need to have a woman on the ticket, and I prefer an African American woman.”
Clyburn, the House majority whip, is the highest-ranking black elected official in either party in Congress.
California Sen. Kamala Harris, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge, Florida Rep. Val Demings, former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and former national security adviser Susan Rice are all possibilities, Clyburn said.
