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All eyes on Biden and who he’ll pick as his running mate

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Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden is expected to announce his running mate this week amidst expectations that it will be a Black woman. Several shortlists are doing the rounds, but New York-based political analyst Professor Christina Greer believes that Biden choosing a woman of colour as his Vice Presidential nominee is not a fait accompli despite the growing pressure on him to do so.

One week out from the beginning of what will be a virtual Democratic convention due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all eyes are on the former Vice President and who he’ll pick to the fill the shoes he wore during the Barack Obama administration.

“Once he announces obviously there’ll be a lot of scrutiny as to who he’s selected, I mean in many ways Joe Biden has had just an embarrassment of riches, there’s been several woman that he’s been debating about, he did say that he was going to choose a female VP, you know that in 1984 Walter Mondale choose Geraldine Ferraro and then in 2016 Hillary Clinton the Female nominee choose Tim Kaine so this is the third time that we’ll see a Democratic Party ticket with a male and female on the ticket,” explains as political scientist Christina Greer.

In the video below, Biden expected to announce his running mate this week:

Among the women he’s considering – former California Attorney General and current Senator Kamala Harris who also ran for the Democratic Nomination; Congresswoman Karen Bass of California and the current chair of the Congressional Black Caucus or Susan Rice – a former UN Ambassador and Obama’s National Security Advisor.

“There’ll definitely be disappointment if Joe Biden does not choose a Black woman. However, the existential threat that Donald Trump poses not just to Black Americans but to all Americans and honestly to the world makes it such that many will be disappointed and may hold their noses but they’ll go to the poll,” says Professor Greer.

She adds: “We might see a small fraction of voters abstaining which is quite dangerous because in this particular election abstention could mean a vote for Donald Trump in many ways so Democrats need as many people to turn out as possible but I don’t think it will be as detrimental just because the current President has been so anti-black, so patriarchal, so white nationalist in so many of his policies.”

Professor Greer, who teaches political science at Fordham University and is the author of Black Ethnics – Race Immigration and the Pursuit of the American Dream, believes Biden might consider a strategic geographic choice like someone from the Midwest which represent key states in any proposed victory come November.

“If Joe Biden decides to choose someone who is not a Black woman he will have to quickly frame and articulate why it is he made that choice, maybe it’ll be a geographic choice, there’s a conversation of say Megan (sic) Gretchen Whitmer who is the Governor of Michigan so that might be a strategic choice not just for the state of Michigan but for the region since Donald Trump won Michigan and Wisconsin which is a neighbouring state. If he chooses someone like Tammy Baldwin, Senator from Wisconsin, she again could deliver a key state  and also help bolster the region and is openly LGBTQ plus”.

Greer says Stacey Abrams is her top choice – a voting rights activist who served in the Georgia State House of Representatives and narrowly lost the 2018 Gubernatorial race in an election marred by accusations of voter suppression. Greer also pushes back on views that Abrams doesn’t have government experience.

“That’s why people say and I don’t agree because when Stacey Abrams was the minority house leader, that means she was head of the democrats in state house in Georgia, she had to work with extremely conservative white male Republicans, akin to something we’ve seen in the Senate. She reminds me of Lyndon Johnson. She was able to understand the rules then work with people across the aisle to explain to them why its beneficial for them to pass a bill or to not pass a bill and so her negotiation skills when she was minority leader is really something I think Joe Biden could use in this moment. I also think he has to choose someone who’s good at two things – he has to choose someone who is good at campaigning and governance”.

Others under consideration include Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois who lost both her legs as a former Lieutenant Colonel in the US army, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Congresswoman Val Damming of Florida.

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