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<\/picture>\u201cGlad to finally have the veepstakes drama behind us and start beating on Trump instead of each other,\u201d one relieved top Democratic donor texted me after the Biden campaign\u2019s announcement this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Unlike news out of the Trump White House and the Trump 2020 campaign, very little of Biden\u2019s running-mate selection process leaked to the press, despite the efforts of reporters and activists with grievances, both sincere and performative. An unmistakable aspect of Biden\u2019s campaign, and one he will likely carry with him to the White House is his small, stable circle of aides who have been with him for years and are intensely loyal to him. He is able to talk out his thoughts with them\u2014he likes to talk out his thoughts a lot, and at length\u2014while feeling secure that they won\u2019t turn on him. That won\u2019t be so easy to keep up if he is president, and is forced to expand his top staff from the same \u201cgraybeards,\u201d as younger aides sometimes refer to Biden\u2019s confidants.<\/p>\n
Throughout the vetting process, Biden considered running mates who had supported his campaign early on\u2014such as Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms\u2014and those who had tried to connect with him on a personal level, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Representative Karen Bass of California, according to people who\u2019ve spoken with him along the way. Harris and Biden have been friendly for years, and Harris was close with Biden\u2019s late son, Beau.<\/p>\n
Because the pandemic has limited in-person campaigning, Harris\u2019s most important job will be debating Vice President Mike Pence this fall. Harris gained national popularity after her intense questioning of various Trump nominees, including Brett Kavanaugh and Jeff Sessions, during their Senate confirmation hearings. Observers believe she will be an intense opponent for the more subdued Pence.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also likely to bring big money to Biden\u2019s campaign. \u201cShe has a proven track record as an incredibly strong fundraiser,\u201d says Andrew Weinstein, a Florida-based member of Biden\u2019s national finance committee. \u201cHer announcement will certainly make a big splash with a lot of Democratic donors.\u201d<\/p>\n
By picking Harris over Susan Rice\u2014whose time as United Nations ambassador and national security adviser to Barack Obama gave her a breadth of foreign-policy experience\u2014Biden is hinting that he would want to take the lead as president in reaching out to heads of government around the world, which aides and advisers say will be a major focus if he beats Trump. Reentering the Iran deal and the Paris Agreement would be early goals, as would reestablishing America\u2019s role as an internationalist force and a moral leader. Biden has bragged<\/a> on the trail about knowing almost every foreign leader.<\/p>\n Having spent four years as a senator, Harris would enter the administration with relationships on Capitol Hill. But if Biden had been looking for someone to take the lead as a congressional negotiator, he might have gone with Bass, the Congressional Black Caucus chair and a close ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Another central part of Biden\u2019s campaign pitch is his long relationships with Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike. Picking Harris suggests that he\u2019s looking to retain the primary role in congressional relations, too.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n Since the early days of coronavirus-related shutdowns, Biden has talked about how Americans\u2019 \u201cblinders have been taken off\u201d about what is wrong with the economy and Trump\u2019s leadership. Among progressives, Biden\u2019s talk of systemic issues has elevated hopes that he might be open to the more revolutionary thinking touted by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Had Biden chosen Bass or Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, both of whom were more popular among progressives, he would have indicated a shift in that direction.<\/p>\n \u201cKamala Harris ran in the progressive lane and was able to nicely balance the progressive approach with a history of pragmatism, and that balance is exactly where Biden wants to be: He wants to dream big, but get things accomplished,\u201d says Scott Mulhauser, a longtime Democratic aide who was the deputy chief of staff to Biden during Obama\u2019s 2012 reelection campaign. \u201cAs someone who has mastered pushing the Senate as far as she could, he wants her as a partner to drive big agendas and to know when to cut the deal to get almost everything you want and actually get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n Biden \u201cdoesn\u2019t care about Twitter fodder. He\u2019s always genuinely loved Kamala Harris, has always respected her abilities,\u201d says Eric Ortner, a donor and friend. \u201cThey care about saving America, protecting the rule of law, and uniting the country when our very health, lives, and existence is at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n Back at the beginning of March, in what turned out to be the final rally of his campaign, in a high-school gym in Detroit, Biden looked over at Harris, Whitmer, and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey and said, “Look, I view myself as a bridge, not as anything else,\u201d adding: \u201cThere’s an entire generation of leaders you saw stand behind me. They are the future of this country.”<\/p>\n Tanden told me that Biden landed on \u201ca vice president who can be a partner across the board.\u201d Biden will turn 78 two weeks after Election Day. If he wins, he will be the oldest president ever inaugurated. Harris, 55, is now the odds-on favorite to be the Democratic nominee after Biden, whether that\u2019s in 2024 or 2028.<\/p>\n . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n “Biden picks Kamala Harris as running mate, first Black woman”<\/a><\/p>\n By Kathleen Ronayne and Will Weissert, August 11, 2020, The Associated Press<\/p>\n WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) \u2014 Joe Biden named California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate on Tuesday, making history by selecting the first Black woman to compete on a major party\u2019s presidential ticket and acknowledging the vital role Black voters will play in his bid to defeat President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n In choosing Harris, Biden is embracing a former rival from the Democratic primary who is familiar with the unique rigor of a national campaign. The 55-year-old first-term senator, who is also of South Asian descent, is one of the party\u2019s most prominent figures. She quickly became a top contender for the No. 2 spot after her own White House campaign ended.<\/p>\n She will appear with Biden for the first time as his running mate at an event Wednesday near his home in Wilmington, Delaware.<\/p>\n In announcing the pick, Biden called Harris a \u201cfearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country\u2019s finest public servants.\u201d She said Biden would \u201cunify the American people\u201d and \u201cbuild an America that lives up to our ideals.\u201d<\/p>\n Harris joins Biden at a moment of unprecedented national crisis. The coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 160,000 people in the U.S., far more than the toll experienced in other countries. Business closures and disruptions resulting from the pandemic have caused severe economic problems. Unrest, meanwhile, has emerged across the country as Americans protest racism and police brutality.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s uneven handling of the crises has given Biden an opening, and he enters the fall campaign in strong position against the president. In adding Harris to the ticket, he can point to her relatively centrist record on issues such as health care and her background in law enforcement in the nation\u2019s largest state.<\/p>\n The president told reporters Tuesday he was \u201ca little surprised\u201d that Biden picked Harris<\/a>, pointing to their debate stage disputes during the primary. Trump, who had donated to her previous campaigns, argued she was \u201cabout the most liberal person in the U.S. Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would have thought that Biden would have tried to stay away from that a little bit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Harris\u2019s record as California attorney general and district attorney in San Francisco was heavily scrutinized during the Democratic primary and turned away some liberals and younger Black voters who saw her as out of step on issues of racism in the legal system and police brutality. She declared herself a \u201cprogressive prosecutor\u201d who backs law enforcement reforms.<\/p>\n Biden, who spent eight years as President Barack Obama\u2019s vice president, has spent months weighing who would fill that same role in his White House. He pledged in March to select a woman as his vice president, easing frustration among Democrats that the presidential race would center on two white men in their 70s.<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s search was expansive, including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive; Florida Rep. Val Demings, whose impeachment criticism of Trump won party plaudits; California Rep. Karen Bass, who leads the Congressional Black Caucus; former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice; and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, whose passionate response to unrest in her city garnered national attention.<\/p>\n The vice presidential pick carries increased significance this year. If elected, Biden would be 78 when inaugurated in January, the oldest man to ever assume the presidency. He\u2019s spoken of himself as a transitional figure and hasn\u2019t fully committed to seeking a second term in 2024.<\/p>\n Harris, born in 1964 to a Jamaican father and Indian mother, spent much of her formative years in Berkeley, California. She has often spoken of the deep bond <\/a>she shared with her mother, whom she has called her single biggest influence.<\/p>\n Harris won her first election in 2003 when she became San Francisco\u2019s district attorney. In that post, she created a reentry program for low-level drug offenders and cracked down on student truancy.<\/p>\n She was elected California\u2019s attorney general in 2010, the first woman and Black person to hold the job, and focused on issues including the foreclosure crisis. She declined to defend the state\u2019s Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage and was later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n After being elected to the Senate in 2016, she quickly gained attention for her assertive questioning of Trump administration officials during congressional hearings.<\/p>\n Harris launched her presidential campaign in early 2019 with the slogan \u201cKamala Harris For the People,\u201d a reference to her courtroom work. She was one of the highest-profile contenders in a crowded Democratic primary and attracted 20,000 people to her first campaign rally in Oakland.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/a82cc13e0e26476cace47e97db641317\/800.jpeg\")
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