Joe Biden’s political advisers are considering failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams as a potential running mate in the 2020 presidential election, a move that would bring much-needed diversity to his campaign.
Biden’s team is debating whether to announce Abrams as his choice as he unveils his 2020 White House bid, Axios reported. One person close to the campaign said choosing Abrams, who is black, would help Biden show voters he “isn’t just another old white guy.”
But not all advisers are on board with the idea, and it’s unclear what Biden thinks.
Biden, 76, could be vulnerable on race once he announces his candidacy. Democratic voters seem hungry for more progressive leaders, and many women and minority candidates have already jumped into the race ahead of him. Those candidates include Sens. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., as well as Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, and tech executive Andrew Yang.
Biden currently leads those candidates by a wide margin before even entering the race. But Biden’s past positions on race could get more scrutiny once he announces a run, even though he has tried to play up his civil rights record.
In 1975, for example, Biden said some blacks favored segregation, and said busing is a “rejection of the whole movement of black pride.”
And in 1987, Biden told white voters that segregationist George Wallace praised him as “one of the outstanding young politicians of America.”
Presidential historian Michael Beschloss noted that picking Abrams as his running mate so early would be unprecedented, as no successful modern nonincumbent presidential candidate has made such a choice ahead of the primary races.
“If Biden were to name his running mate long in advance of the Milwaukee convention, it might be very good politics,” Beschloss told Axios. “It also might ultimately provide good government. Voters in the primary process deserve to know as much as possible about the future they are opting for.”
Abrams, who lost a tight Georgia gubernatorial race to Republican Brian Kemp in 2018, reportedly met with Biden last week in Washington.
She would have been the nation’s first black female governor if she defeated Kemp.
