Biden picks first woman of colour as running mate
California senator, 55, wins the nomination as Obama declares ‘Joe Biden nailed this decision’
Democrat Joe Biden has picked California senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential nominee – the first ever woman of colour on a US presidential ticket for a major party. “I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person,” Mr Biden said.
JOE BIDEN has picked California senator Kamala Harris as his vice presidential nominee, making her the first ever woman of colour on a US presidential ticket for a major party.
Mr Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, made the historic announcement yesterday after a search for a running mate which had lasted months.
“I need someone working alongside me who is smart, tough, and ready to lead. Kamala is that person,” Mr Biden said in a statement announcing his long-awaited choice.
Ms Harris, 55, was picked from a shortlist of around a dozen women and matched many of the criteria which Mr Biden had indicated he wanted in his deputy.
He said he had wanted a nominee ready to step into the top job at a moment’s notice given his age, 77, and talked up his hope of making his ticket better reflect America’s diversity.
Ms Harris is the third woman ever selected as a vice presidential candidate for either the Republicans or the Democrats, following Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Sarah Palin in 2008.
She would become the first woman ever to serve as either president or vice president if victorious given Ms Ferraro, Ms Palin and Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, all lost.
Explaining his decision in an email to supporters, Mr Biden said: “I need someone who understands the pain that so many people in our nation are suffering. Whether they’ve lost their job, their business, a loved one to this virus. This president says he ‘doesn’t want to be distracted by it’.
“He doesn’t understand that taking care of the people of this nation – all the people – isn’t a distraction, it’s the job. Kamala understands that.”
Ms Harris had challenged Mr Biden for her party’s 2020 presidential nomination but dropped out of the race before Christmas as donations began to dry up. She once confronted Mr Biden forcefully in an early debate last year about his past opposition to busing, the practice of taking children by bus to different schools to help break down racial segregation.
The feisty exchange had dominated headlines at the time and was seen as a possible hurdle to Ms Harris being selected as Mr Biden’s running mate.
Mr Biden referenced the fact he first met Ms Harris through his son eldest Beau, who was a rising star in the Democratic Party before dying from cancer in 2015, in his statement.
“There is no one’s opinion I valued more than Beau’s and I’m proud to have Kamala standing with me on this campaign,”
‘I need someone who understands the pain that so many people in our nation are suffering’
Mr Biden said. Ms Harris has an Indian mother and Jamaican father, meaning she is also the first Asianamerican person to be on a presidential ticket for a major US political party.
Her selection came as Mr Biden, who had already committed to selecting a woman as a running mate, was facing public calls to pick a person of colour to join him for the election on November 3.
Racial injustice has been pushed to the forefront of US public debate after the death of George Floyd triggered nationwide antiracism protests unlike anything seen in the country for decades.
Her experience in criminal justice – she was the district attorney for San Francisco then Attorney General of California before becoming a US senator in 2017 – was also singled out by Mr Biden in his supporters’ note.
During her presidential bid Ms Harris also ran on a more moderate platform than some of her rivals, a point likely to have been considered by the Biden campaign given Donald Trump’s increasing attacks that Mr Biden will be “controlled” by “radical socialists”.
Within minutes of the announcement a photograph of Mr Biden and Ms Harris high-fiving had been uploaded to the Biden campaign website and a Biden-harris campaign logo was revealed.
Ms Harris reacted by tweeting that he was “honoured” to become the party’s vice presidential nominee, saying that Mr Biden can “unify the American people”.
Barack Obama, the former US president whom Mr Biden served as vice president for eight years, praised the choice, saying: “Joe Biden nailed this decision.” ”