Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), a 2020 White House contender, said that she thinks fellow candidate and former vice president Joe Biden would be a “great running mate” for her.
Asked on Wednesday in New Hampshire if she was tired of people labeling her as a potentially perfect vice president on next year’s Democratic ticket, Harris turned the question on its head, saying:
“I think that, sure, if people want to speculate about running mates, I encourage that ― because I think that Joe Biden would be a great running mate.”
She noted that “he’s proven that he knows how to do the job,” adding, “And there’s certainly a lot of other candidates that would make, for me, a very viable and interesting vice president.”
Earlier this week, some members of the Congressional Black Caucus said Biden and Harris would be “a dream ticket,” according to Politico. Lawmakers in the group were still deciding about whether to support Biden or their fellow caucus members in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination: Harris and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.
The nomination battle features more than 20 candidates so far, including several women and people of color who make the field the most diverse ever in a presidential campaign.
Yet early polls show two white men ― Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ― consistently in the lead. In HuffPost’s polling in late March, Biden, who had yet to announce his candidacy at the time, was also the only contender whom the majority of Democratic voters (69%) named as capable of beating President Donald Trump next year.
Earlier this month, Harris gave a pointed response to those questioning certain candidates’ “electability.”
“There has been a lot of conversation by pundits about ‘electability,’” Harris said in a speech in Detroit, suggesting that those omitted from that discussion were people of color and women.
“It leaves out people in this room who helped build cities like Detroit,” said the senator, who is black and Asian, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India. “It leaves out working women who are on their feet all day.”
“The conversation too often suggests certain voters will only vote for certain candidates,” Harris added. “And it is shortsighted, it’s wrong and the voters deserve better.”