The Dark Horse Candidates For Biden’s VP Choice

Topline: Joe Biden, who has already committed to picking a woman as his running mate, is reportedly considering two dark horse candidates—Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto—for his VP pick, as well as recent presidential candidates Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif., according to sources familiar with the thinking on Biden’s campaign. 

• Biden, who would be 78 years old on Inauguration Day and the oldest person to ever take the oath of office, is under increasing pressure to choose a can’t miss VP pick.
• Cortez Masto was first elected to the Senate in 2017 and was previously attorney general of Nevada from 2007-2015. 
• Grisham is the first Latina Democratic governor of New Mexico and was previously a three-term member of Congress.
• “There’s about 12 to 15 women who I think would be qualified to be president tomorrow,” Biden said Tuesday on “The View.” “But I think we’re going to now have the list down to about 11. We’re going to start vetting soon.”
• Biden indicated Sunday that he has consulted with his former boss, President Barack Obama, about who to pick for VP. 
• At the top of the list are Harris, Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., according to Biden advisers and allies interviewed by Politico.

Crucial quote: “I think it’s necessary for it to be a woman and I prefer an African-American woman. That’s my preference,” House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-SC, told Politico in an interview. Clyburn’s endorsement of Biden before the South Carolina primary played a major part in the former vice president winning the state. 

Further Reading: NBC News’ Brian Schwartz reports allies of Biden in the business community are pressuring him to pick Klobuchar or Harris for the VP slot. 

Tangent: Biden recently started holding televised briefings on the coronavirus pandemic from his home.

“Trump keeps saying that he’s a wartime president. Well, start to act like one,” Biden said Monday. “To paraphrase a frustrated President Lincoln writing to an inactive General McClellan during the Civil War, ‘if you don’t want to use the army, may I borrow it?’”