Joe Biden’s running mate hunt sees Harris, Abrams diverge on approach

Bloomberg

The hunt for Joe Biden’s running mate is intensifying as some candidates make their interest in the job clear.
Stacey Abrams and Kamala Harris have both taken steps to ensure their names are included in any public lists, but while Abrams has been actively campaigning, Harris has taken a subtler approach.
Biden, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon and strategist Anita Dunn are talking to elected officials and party elders about the decision, according to two people familiar with the outreach. The four members of the vice presidential advisory committee, which includes former Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, are doing the same. Biden has said he doesn’t expect to have his list whittled down to the final few until July.
That hasn’t stopped several candidates from letting it be known that they would be “honored” to stand next to him — even virtually — at the nominating convention this summer.
Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois spoke on two public Biden campaign calls last week, one with the press on the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act and the other to Asian American Pacific Islanders for Biden. “Just having my name mentioned in the same breath as Tammy Baldwin and the likes of Amy Klobuchar is really breathtaking for me,” Duckworth said on ABC’s “The View.”
Biden’s pick is particularly meaningful. He has promised his running mate will be a woman. Other candidates, Republican John McCain in 2008 and Democrat Walter Mondale in 1984, selected Sarah Palin and Geraldine Ferraro but included men in their search. Given Biden’s age of 77, there has been speculation that he would only serve one term if elected, and his vice president would become an early favourite to be the party’s standard-bearer in 2024.