Joe Biden is the almost certain Democratic nominee. Nate Silver describes his chances of being nominated at the convention as 99 out of a 100. Who, then, will Joe Biden choose as his Vice Presidential candidate? In 2018, suburban women were the crucial swing group that flipped the House of Representatives Democratic. The second to last candidate to drop out of the presidential contest was a woman. Several of the popular Democratic candidates were women. Joe Biden was responding to the views of the Democratic party when he announced he would choose a woman as his Vice Presidential candidate.=
He needs more balance than that. Joe Biden was originally seen as the blue collar candidate, the candidate who could compete with Donald Trump for that vote. He doesn’t need someone else to appeal to the same group. It turned out that the group that kept Joe Biden afloat while his candidacy appeared to be tanking were African Americans, especially African American women. He might gain a great candidate by choosing Kamala Harris or even the risky choice of Stacey Abrams, but he does not gain a new demographic.
The group Joe Biden had the greatest trouble reaching, the group with which Bernie Sanders showed surprising strength was Latinos. To ensure that he keeps that portion of the Democratic base with him, he should look carefully at Latinas for his Vice President.
He needs to find Latinas with appropriate credentials for the role. There are two. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico. More on them tomorrow