Biden under new pressure for VP pick

Joe Biden is approaching the most important decision of his presidential campaign — choosing the woman who will be his running mate — on political terrain that has changed dramatically since he began the search, and amid intense lobbying that has showered uncommon attention on the contenders.

With the former vice president enjoying a strong polling lead over President Donald Trump, some supporters say Biden is under less pressure to make a game-changing pick to galvanize voters than when he was first struggling to unify the party and Trump seemed stronger.

“We don’t have to shake up the race,” said Wade Randlett, a Biden fundraiser in the Bay Area. “We don’t want to shake up the race — just add an asset. This can be a historic pick and still a do-no-harm pick.”

Biden is still under heavy pressure to pick a Black woman, but contenders of all races have been cycling in and out of the spotlight, with new names surfacing almost weekly, each with her own cheering section. His strong position in the polls may give him more latitude to think beyond short-term political considerations — to choose the person who seems the best long-term fit as a governing partner.

“The more the electoral map looks promising, you start thinking more about compatibility, and whether this is somebody I really want to be my partner for four or eight years,” said Joel K. Goldstein, a scholar of the vice presidency at St. Louis University School of Law.

A “do-no-harm” caution could make it less likely that Biden would make a potentially high-risk, high-reward choice such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a progressive leader who might excite the party’s left wing and young people, but could alienate moderate voters. It might boost the prospects of lower-profile candidates like Rep. Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, a Black progressive, or Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a disabled veteran and Thai American.

But lower-profile, low-key types may not be prepared for the pressure cooker of a national campaign, which is why many handicappers believe a top contender is Sen. Kamala Harris of California — a Black former presidential candidate.

Some Democrats are warning against complacency as Biden’s polling lead grows, given the vast uncertainty about the next few months before Nov. 3. And the party must continue to energize its core voters, they say — especially Black Americans, whose reduced turnout in 2016 from the record high of 2012 contributed to Hillary Clinton’s defeat.

“There is a temptation when you’re this far ahead in the polls to start to focus on the moderate Republican swing voters,” said Karen Finney, a top aide to the Clinton campaign in 2016 and one of more than 200 Black women who signed a letter urging Biden to pick a Black female running mate. If Biden doesn’t select a Black woman, Finney said, “there is a significant potential that will have a suppressive impact on Black voters.”

Biden months ago announced he would pick a woman for his running mate. In a recent MSNBC interview, he said he was considering, among others, four black women. Although he did not name them, sources close to the campaign say that top contenders include Bass, Harris, former Obama national security advisor Susan Rice and Rep. Val Demings of Florida, a former police chief.

Biden also said he had gotten to an advanced stage of vetting four women — one being Warren, according to a source familiar with the process. Biden said he will get a two-hour report about the serious contenders from his four-person vetting committee before deciding whom to interview.

The protracted process in the five months since Biden became the prospective Democratic nominee has helped draw money and attention to his campaign — especially from the party’s all-important female constituency — at a time when the pandemic has made it hard to break through.

The process also shows a lot about how Biden makes decisions: He is consulting a wide array of sources, but is expected to make the final decision in a small, tight and leak-averse group of family members and longtime advisors. Still, the scrutiny of contenders has been unusually public because the garrulous Biden has talked so much about them.